A Change of Fate (SG1-Halo crossover)

[Eternal_Freedom]

Sweet, it's back!

Also, the frigate Eternal Freedom...heh

[astrospace2020]

another great chapter, Now the Shyuum and Humanity Allied , Tech will be shared , and both will become a Mega Stelar Power, and Defeat and Crush the Covenant .I hope also that soon the Rift in the Covenant happens ,and the Elites Join the alliance ,against the remnant Covenant . Cant hardly wait for the next chapters .

[InsaneTD]

I'll plus one that, should be very interesting indeed. Keep up the great work.

[Skywalker_T-65]

Since, like I said, this story is complete I'll be posting it whenever I have the time.
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Coelest System, Substance, Installation 05

9th Age of Reclamation

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A storm raged on the surface of Halo Installation 05, its weather systems in disrepair after so many years of the Flood outbreak. The center of this storm was over the Library, ringed by its Sentinel Wall. The massive wall stood tall, various models of the Forerunner machines that gave it its name flying around it. Sentinels and Enforcers fought the Flood that was even now attempting to escape, while the smaller repair drones did their best to keep the wall in good shape. Various Covenant, Brute, warships floated around the massive structure, occasionally firing on it. If it were just the wall, they would have long ago breached it, or just flown over it. The problem was the light, almost translucent, blue shield extending in a dome around the wall. It was impossible to get in, even with a drop from orbit.

Thus, the reason a single small Corvette was flying right at the wall. The Everlasting Solitude came to a halt a safe distance away, while a pair of Phantoms detached themselves from its small hangar and flew at an opening in the wall. One of the Phantoms was carrying the Arbiter and his personal guard, while the other carried the Jiralhanae Chieftain and his men. The two dropships landed nearby to each other, dropping their precious cargos onto the silvery Forerunner metal.

"Arbiter, you will take the first path, I shall take the second!" the Chieftain shouted out, running forward with his hammer.

Thel couldn't help but shake his head as he moved more cautiously with the Sword behind him.

"I can smell the Parasite," the Arbiter said, a note of disgust in his voice.

The rest of the Sword didn't even bother sniffing the air. The smell of death and decay so indicative of the Flood was easy to sense. Even the Unggoy in their masks could smell the stench. It didn't help that there were multicolored blood stains scattered across the floor, along with discarded weapons. Thel walked up to a blue stain and picked up a red Plasma Rifle, the weapon still mostly charged despite its condition.

"The Jiralhanae have been sending in assault teams I see," Nar commented, taking the Brute Plasma Rifle from the Arbiter and attaching it to his own waist.

Thel nodded, "Indeed. Why then have they sent us in?"

"Other than the Oracle's word, I would assume they can't handle the Parasite."

"Arbiter!" an Unggoy called out from further in the room.

Upon hearing that, Thel moved forward with the rest of his men, standing next to a massive piece of metal with glowing holograms on each of its four faces. The structure seemed to be recessed into the floor, and, oddly, had a blood stain that seemed to be extending from under it. Almost like it had come down on top of something, which shouldn't have been possible.

"What is this Arbiter?" the Unggoy asked, sounding skittish at the situation they were walking into.

Thel looked thoughtful, clicking his mandibles as he circled the pillar. There was something about it...but what? Cautiously reaching a hand out, the Sangheili leader pressed it to one of the holograms lining the device. As soon as his scaled hand touched the device, the Arbiter felt a slight shock, before a groan began to echo through the room. The Covenant warriors around him raised their weapons, scanning the area for any sign of a trap. As such, only Thel noticed the pillar rising out of the floor at first.

"Interesting," the Arbiter mused, looking at the hole the pillar had revealed.

Stretching into darkness, was a curving passageway. The blood that had been on the pillar was reveled to belong to an Unggoy, its body sitting on an outcropping on the passage.

"I think we have to jump Arbiter," one of the other Sangheili said, "we have been unable to find any other way out of here."

Thel nodded, "Move out!"

The Unggoy, unsurprisingly, jumped first, their screams echoing up from the darkness below. The Kig-Yar went second, holding their shields below them in an impressive display of improvisation. Finally, the Sangheili went down, the Arbiter going last. As the darkness consumed him, Thel heard the pillar retracting back into the floor, and sealing his group in. They were trapped now, unless they could bring the Wall down.

"Remind me to never do that again Arbiter," Nar said, once Thel landed with the rest of his team.

Thel chuckled at that, before turning serious and looking around the area, "Have we found any sign of the controls for the Wall?"

Nar opened his mandibles to answer, when a familiar voice came over their comm systems, "The controls are further in the Wall. Follow this marker."

Penitent Tangent's voice had somehow come over their communication systems, and planted a marker on their maps. The Sword looked amongst themselves, unspoken thoughts ranging along the lines of 'how is the Oracle still contacting us?'. Ignoring the problems with that, the Arbiter scanned their surroundings. Unlike the room they had landed in, this one was much larger and more open. A set of walkways crossed a deep chasm, with hexagonal panels on the sides of pillars. A few of the panels bore damage, almost like they had been beaten and torn apart by a Jiralhanae...or a Parasite.

Raising a hand, Thel signaled his troops to activate their Active Camouflage devices. The Covenant Warriors vanished, as they moved forward quietly. Crossing walkway after walkway, all they came across were a few roaming Sentinels. Despite how advanced the machines were, they made no signs of noticing the cloaked Covenant warriors, who continued on their way.

Unfortunately, sneaking around wouldn't work forever. A loud clang echoed from across a bridge, forcing the Arbiter to halt his troops. Not a moment too soon either, as the crushed body of a Sentinel went flying into the chasm below them. Moving from behind the wrecked Forerunner machine was the tip of a...Gravity Hammer. At first, the Sanheili assumed it was the Chieftain they had entered with. This was quickly proven false, as a yellowed and decayed hand and body came into view. It was a Chieftain alright...but a Flood Infected one.

Since they were all cloaked, Thel sent a quick communication to his Sword.

"Move back."

The Covenant warriors backed up, taking positions to ambush the infected Jiralhanae. The Unggoy were pushed up to positions on nearby ledges, while the Kig-Yar angled their shields in front of the few Sangheili in the group. Thel himself had jumped on a platform overlooking the bridge, his sword primed and ready. The Brute Form had no idea that the Covenant were there, as it stumbled forward on broken and disfigured legs.

"Fire!"

A cascade of blue and green plasma bolts, and pink needles hit the Flood Form from all sides. It seemed to retain its shield to some extent, as a shimmering effect took the impacts and kept it alive. A high pitched shriek echoed from its tortured throat, before the Arbiter fell from above, his sword plunging through its drained shield...and through its chest. The infected Brute slumped forward, the sword burning through the Infection Form in its chest. Kicking the body off his blade, Thel deactivated the sword and picked up the fallen Hammer.

He made a small distasteful noise at holding a Jiralhanae weapon, but as the cloak wrapped around the weapon, he still put it on his back, while moving his Carbine to his hands.

"Why are you taking that Arbiter?" Nar asked quietly as the group began moving forward again.

"It is an inferior weapon, but it has its uses," Thel replied just as quietly, "at least I can still use it if it runs out of power."

Nar nodded, and fell back to his guard position as the Sword reached another pillar. Once again the Arbiter stuck a hand to it, and once again the group jumped down a winding passage. If these were any bigger limbs would be broken. As it was, the Covenant troops were still shaken slightly at the end of the drop, the Unggoy stumbling around trying to get feeling back in their short legs.

Once the group had recovered, they moved forward again. This time though, it wasn't a silent walk. For they could hear shouts in various Covenant tongues...in addition to plasma and needler fire.

"Move forward!" the Arbiter shouted, dropping his cloak and raising his carbine...green bolts lashing out at a pair of Infection Forms trying to take a fleeing Kig-Yar.

The rest of the Sword opened fire, this time joined by red plasma from Nar's 'borrowed' Brute weapon. The Covenant forces that had been previously fighting for their lives let out a weary cheer, and turned to fire on the Flood again. With the crossfire from the surviving fighters and the Sword, it didn't take long to down the remaining Flood forms. Curiously, some of them were carrying Sentinel Beams, weapons that the Arbiter had his Sangheili recover for their use against the Flood.

While that was being done, Thel walked up to the ragged group of Kig-Yar and Unggoy that had been fleeing.

"Who is in command here?" he asked sharply.

A Jackal stepped forward, looking at the Arbiter with some amount of disdain in his eyes, "I am Arbiter."

Thel simply ignored the look, quite used to it by this point, "And why were you fleeing from battle?"

The Jackal merely pointed at the corpses of Flood and Covenant alike. It seemed to think that explained things sufficiently...which it did, but the Arbiter had a job to do. So he moved past the arrogant Kig-Yar, and stood in front of one of the Unggoy.

"What is past that door?"

"Big monster!" the Grunt replied, sounding frightened by the 'big monster'.

"A Forerunner Enforcer," the Kig-Yar supplied.

Thel clacked his mandibles thoughtfully at that. An Enforcer...something he had seen on the approach to the Wall, but not actually fought before. They were big, had shields, and large weapons if what he had seen them do to Flood was any indication. Not an easy fight, and it made sense that the warriors were fleeing from it, even discounting the Flood.

"I assume it killed your Jiralhanae leaders?" the Arbiter questioned.

"Yes," the Jackal replied.

"Hmm..." the Sangheili leader walked back to the Sword.

"An Enforcer eh?" Nar asked.

"Indeed. I don't trust our brother's to fight it...they are weary and running out of ammunition and power packs."

"We can handle it ourselves Arbiter!" one of the other Sangheili shouted, his green armor rippling slightly as he rose a hand to his chest.

Thel nodded, "That I do not doubt. Kig-Yar!"

"Yes Arbiter?"

"Keep your warriors here and rest. We shall return for you once the Enforcer is dead."

If the Jackal had any doubts, he hid them well as he nodded and moved the surviving warriors to a small alcove where they could rest while keeping an eye out for any Flood or Sentinels. For their part, the Sword checked their own supplies before stacking up behind Thel as he moved to open the door. The moment it slid open, they rushed forward, finding cover behind various walls while the Arbiter active his antique camouflage systems and scouted the room.

And it was a big room at that. The walls stretched into the distance, surround a central platform upon which set several pillars of energy, with one central console. Jiralhanae bodies lay scattered where they had fallen, Kig-Yar and Unggoy corpses littering, and in some cases hanging off walls, the rest of the area. The biggest (no pun intended) problem however, was the massive Enforcer floating above the area. Its shields were active, covering its eyes and keeping anyone from getting close. There was noticeable damage from the previous teams, even so much as one of its 'legs' missing.

That didn't mean it wasn't a threat however...as a stray Unggoy tried to escape and was blown, quite literally, into pieces by super-sized needler rounds.

Moving back before his system ran out of power, Thel walked over to his second in command.

"We aren't going to kill it the normal way Arbiter," Nar said without being prompted.

"No we are not," the Arbiter agreed, "have the Kig-Yar and Unggoy with Plasma Pistols set up positions where they can hit its shields. Needlers are to fire once the shields are down, while the Sangheili join me in getting underneath the Enforcer and tossing Grenades. I will fire one...one...shot from my Carbine as a signal."

Once the orders had been relayed, the Sword got into their posts, and sent ready signals to the Arbiter. Thel activated his cloak again, and got to a covered area on the lower level. Raising his Carbine to his eyes, he sighted in on one small gap in the Enforcers shield, right around it's 'eye'. Taking a breath to steady his aim, the Sangheili fired one green radioactive bolt.

The Enforcer staggered back slightly, seemingly confused at the shot that came out of nowhere. This stagger became a full-fledged shudder as several larger green bolts came from several directions and took out it shield. Spinning around, the Enforcer started to fire off its large pink needles, while smaller Covenant needles swarmed in and stuck to its weapons before detonating in brilliant explosions that sent shrapnel flying everywhere. The machine floated down slightly, its programming stunned at the sudden, and well-coordinated, attack. A machine designed to fight basic Flood infections wasn't prepared for Sangheili leadership...especially not Thel 'Vadamee leadership.

"Go!" said Elite shouted, as his counterparts charged from different positions around the platform.

The Enforcer spun, trying to fire weapons that no longer existed. The Sangheili merely kept running, trusting their shields if it managed to fire something off. Once the Elite's were beneath the massive machine, they crossed paths, each tossing a glowing blue sphere up at the Forerunner combat AI before jumping into cover on the edge of the platform. As for the Enforcer? It froze as the Plasma Grenades got brighter and brighter before...

*BOOM*

The combination of half-a-dozen grenades detonating at once blew the machine into several pieces, the surviving leg nearly crushing an unfortunate Kig-Yar. Coughing slightly in the resultant smoke, the Arbiter lifted his head over the wall he was using as cover, and saw no sign of any remaining defenses. The Sword joined him, as he walked up to the central panel.

"You must deactivate each of the pillars," Penitent Tangent's voice echoed through each of their heads.

Thel shook said head, as he waved a single Sangheili to each pillar while he pressed the central button. The first time unlocked the pillars, which each Sangheili then deactivated. The second time opened the wall and started the platform, now revealed to be a gondola of sorts, up. The warriors left in the last room barely managed to jump onto it before it left them behind. As it moved out past the massive doors, bits of Enforcer falling off the sides, Thel and his men watched as the glowing shield around the Library faded.

"We did it Arbiter," Nar said, "we brought the wall down."

The Arbiter nodded his large head, "But we still must retrieve the Index."

The other Elite nodded. Silence then fell upon the Covenant warriors as the gondola continued on its trip. Flashes of lightning lit up the sky, dark red and black hues illuminated by the blue streaks. They had a mission to finish, but they had no idea how to do so. The gondola would take the group into what had been coined the Quarantine Zone...but it wouldn't reach the Library still standing ominously in the distance. Not, as it turned out, that they had to worry about that.

"Arbiter, I believe you need a transport?" a familiar voice came over their radios.

"Rtas?" Thel questioned, seeing a Phantom lowering itself to the platform. And indeed, on one of the open side doors stood a familiar white-clad Sangheili.

"It is good to see you Arbiter!" the Spec Ops commander shouted out, as the Phantom landed next to the Sword and their weary counterparts.

Needless to say, confusion had begun to reign amongst the group, but that confusion went away when a particularly nasty bolt of lightning cleared some clouds and revealed a familiar, and massive, shape in the sky of Halo.

High Charity had arrived. Swarms of ships, large enough to be seen even from the surface of the Ring, surrounded the mushroom shape of the Holy City as it settled into orbit of the Ring. It certainly explained how Rtas had arrived, though it seemed odd it was so timely. Either way though, the Arbiter gave one final look at High Charity before waving his group (and the stragglers) forward to the Phantom.

Thel himself stood next to his fellow Sangheili, as the dropship lifted off.

"How did you know where to find us?"

"The Jiralhanae in command of the fleet told the Prophets of your mission. I was sent in as soon as the shield fell."

That made as much sense as anything, Thel thought...as the Phantom moved towards the Library in the distance...

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1330 Hours, November 17th, 2552 (Military Calendar)/

UNSC Staging Area, Procyon System, Arcadia

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With the new lead on the Spirit of Fire, Arcadia had reverted to the secondary purpose. Forming a staging area for flanking attacks into former UNSC territories. Thus, a large space station had been constructed in orbit of the devastated world, while supply ships flew back and forth, gathering what little they could from the world. The supplies were being used to stock various raiding groups, since the UNSC lacked the forces to actually hold any of the former colonies at the moment.

"They can certainly make an impression when they want to," Cam said, whistling slightly at the sight of one of only two remaining Valiant-class Super-Heavy Cruisers left in the UNSC navy.

The massive cruiser (though still dwarfed by the even larger Ascendant Justice floating next to it) was easily the same size as an Asgard Mothership, and left the Odyssey like a fly buzzing around it.

"No they don't," Sam agreed, "have you heard about that ship the General is working on?"

"Infinity? Yeah, she's as big as that Covvie ship," the other Colonel replied, using the UNSC slang for Covenant.

Neither of the Colonels (or Daniel for that matter) had seen Landry or Vala for months. All they could gather was they were working with ONI on some super-special ship out in the Solar System's Oort Cloud. On that note, they hadn't seen Teal'c in months either. SG-1, sans the Jaffa, had been alone on the Odyssey with its (hopefully temporary) UNSC crew for longer than it had taken to get between the Milky Way and Ida.

"Wonder what Teal'c has been up to," Cam mused.

"Trying not to kill the Prophets?" Sam deadpanned.

Cam snorted at that, easily able to see in his imagination how Teal'c would react to meeting the Prophets. When, by all indications, they were just as religiously wacko as the Goa'uld, minus the God-Complex. Then again, the Jaffa was able to control himself, so hopefully that meeting had gone as well as planned. Having an ally of any sort could help.

"Sam!" Daniel's voice came echoing through the bridge as he ran up with a message in his hands.

"Where's the fire Jackson?" Mitchell asked curiously.

"Apparently we're being called to Earth," the archeologist replied.

Both Colonels raised an eyebrow at that. Why would they be recalled to Earth? They hadn't even been to the cradle of humanity, not in this universe. Not that there had been much reason, beyond sentimental value at least, anyway. Reach was the true center of the UNSC, and as such, where the Odyssey had been studied and resupplied. Going to Earth was...while pleasant, a surprise nonetheless. Especially since the Odyssey was always an integral part of any large raid these days.

"Wonder why?" Cam asked out-loud.

"Maybe they want to pick Sam's brain on the Infinity," Daniel suggested, with a sly grin at his old friend...who merely punched his arm.

"Possibly, but they have Vala for that. She's eccentric, but she is smart when she needs to be," Sam replied.

Cam was amused by the interactions between those two, but still kept enough attention on running the ship to get it into hyperspace.

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With the speed of its hyperdrive, it didn't take very long for the Odyssey to arrive at Earth. When it did arrive, a low whistle could be heard on the bridge. While the UNSC Home Fleet had been shrunk somewhat to supply ships to Reach and the Arcadia Base, the sight of three hundred Super-MAC platforms was something to behold. The blue orb of Earth was literally encircled by the powerful stations, more than making up for the (relative) lack of ships. Twenty of those guns had been enough to bleed the Covenant badly at Reach...this was something else.

"No kill like overkill," Cam commented, as the Odyssey was called by Lord Hood.

"Evidently we have to go to Cairo Station," Sam relayed the message.

And, thus, the Odyssey floated forward, its powerful engines crossing the distance to Cairo at a very fast rate. The station grew larger in the viewport, a handful of frigates currently docked at it. The Odyssey herself docked next to a newly built frigate, the In Amber Clad. Apparently commanded by Captain Keyes daughter of all people...coincidence?

Either way, SG-1 disembarked their own ship, heading for the center of the massive space station. They passed various marines, loading crates and practicing drills. Say what you will about the UNSC, they certainly kept their people in shape and well-trained. Somewhat more surprising was seeing Miranda Keyes in her dress uniform, with an African-American Sergeant next to her.

Hood stood in front of Keyes and the Sergeant, looking up when he noticed SG-1, "Ah, you've arrived. I trust there were no problems?"

"Nope," Cam replied.

Hood smiled slightly, "Good. Commander Keyes you know, with her is her Marine commander, Sergeant Johnson."

SG-1 nodded at the two UNSC soldiers, before Hood got their attention again, "I've called you all here because Commander Keyes has found something interesting while testing the new sensors installed on her frigate. Commander?"

Miranda nodded and walked forward. A panel, designed by Sam and Halsey, lit up on the wall. On it was a diagram of a city...according to the diagram, New Mombasa in Kenya. Seemingly random so far...why would some African city matter enough to call SG-1 back? Or really any city on Earth for that matter. This view changed when the view on the screen did...for the city went transparent, as...something could be seen deep underneath it. The sensor reading was iffy at best, but there was some metal construct underneath the modern city.

"While on a routine patrol, my crew tested our new sensor array," Miranda began, "we noticed something odd in the vicinity of Mombasa, so I did a fly-by. This is what the sensors picked up."

Sam walked forward, a gleam in her eyes as she looked over the data. Cam and Daniel shared bemused looks, while Johnson merely grunted in amusement. The Colonel ignored that though, carefully studying what the Amber Clad had managed to glean from its limited sensor sweeps. There was something familiar about this...but what?

"Odyssey, can you scan these coordinates?" Sam radioed back to the ship, hoping its more powerful Asgard-designed sensors could get a better reading.

"Will do Colonel," the reply came back...and soon after that, came the data.

A new image of the structure was placed next to the old one. The scans by the Odyssey were significantly better, and showed far more detail. Detail that told Sam a grim truth, and all she needed to know. For now...now she understood why the structure under the Kenyan town looked so familiar. Because she had seen something built by the same people before.

"I'm not sure how it got there," Sam said grimly, turning to face the rest of the group, "but that structure is...Forerunner."

[Skywalker_T-65]

I should note that when I wrote this I hadn't known what the canonical fate of the Spirit of Fire was. Also wasn't totally happy with this one, but meh.

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1745 Hours, November 17th, 2552 (Military Calendar)/

UNSC Dusk, Forerunner Shield World 0459


With a flash of radiation and purple-blue light, the UNSC Dusk came barreling out of hyperspace, having finally reached its destination. The pitch-black ship slowed slightly, as it activated its stealth systems, up to and including a Goa'uld cloak. On the bridge, the crew looked out and saw a rather shocking sight. For instead of entering orbit of a world, which should have happened if the coordinates from the Steward were correct, they entered a massive debris field. Bits and pieces of silvery metal bounced off the ships light armor, as large pieces floated around them.

"What the hell happened here?" the commander, Richard Lash, asked with a bit of awe in his voice.

"Looks like the planet just...blew up...sir," Lieutenant Joe Yang commented from his sensor station.

Indeed, that is what had appeared to happen. Where there should have been a planet, there was only an asteroid belt of sorts. Bits and pieces of stone and earth were interspaced with Forerunner metals, all floating around. There was no sign of the Spirit of Fire however...just the ruined planetary remains.

"How long has it been like this?" Lash finally asked.

"According to the sensors...about twenty years," Yang replied, "whatever happened here, it happened when the Spirit was around."

That was sobering. Bad enough that something had blown up a Forerunner planet, but if one added in the fact it happened when the ship they were looking for had been in the area...suddenly the odds of the Spirit of Fire still being intact were even slimmer than they had been. And they had been pretty damn slim to begin with.

"Increase the sensor radius," Lash ordered, "there might be something else out there we aren't seeing with all this debris."

It was a long shot, but what other choice did they have?

"I'm picking up...something sir," Yang piped up after some time scanning the area.

"What is it?"

"I can't tell from here...the debris isn't letting me get a clear picture. But it looks like the remains of a trail from Phoenix-class engines."

Lash nodded, "Like the Spirit. Drop the cloak and pull up the shields. We'll have to go through that debris and I don't want an asteroid hitting something important."

The crew nodded, and with a slight shimmer, the Dusk decloaked. If there had been anyone around to notice, it was still doubtful they would have seen anything though. The cloak was a nice bonus, but the old Prowler systems were still there too. The only way anyone would notice the ship is the slight golden flare of its shields pushing aside debris. As it was, there wasn't a soul in this system who could notice the small Prowler.

Something that was a blessing to be sure. As a Prowler, the Dusk lacked any viable weapons to use on other warships. At best, it could cloak and ring out a nuke next to an enemy. And with the amount of debris, using the cloak was a risk...something made clear as a shattered Forerunner hull-plate careened off the shield. Thus, the Dusk flared its engines and went 'up' relative to the plane of debris. A destroyed planet left a lot of material behind, and it would have taken too long to get through it from end-to-end. Presuming a large piece didn't crush the ship, shield or no shield.

"Clearing the debris in five...four...three...two...we're clear sir," the helmsman reported.

"Sensors?" Lash asked.

The powerful sensors on the UNSC Prowler focused in on the sensor ghost they had received in the debris field.

"Scanning...that trail is definitely from a Phoenix," Yang replied, a small bit of hope in his voice, "following the trail...its at the edge of the system, but I have what looks like a ship!"

The small crew looked amongst themselves, relief visible on their faces. After twenty years, none of them had really expected the Spirit to still be around. Aside from the occasional nut who suggested that Cutter had fled the war or defected to an Insurrectionist group, most in the UNSC presumed the ship had been destroyed decades ago. But now...maybe this ship was what they had been looking for. It would be quite the irony, that the 'official' reason for retaking Arcadia actually bore fruit.

"Micro-jump us to that ship. But bring us out far enough away to activate the cloak...I'm not taking any risks here," Lash ordered, keeping his head in the game.

"In case its a Covenant ship sir?" one of the crew asked.

Lash nodded, "I wouldn't put it past the Covvies to have a ship or two out here. Maybe salvagers getting what they can from that debris belt. I know we'll probably start mining it for resources ourselves, if only because we don't have a surplus of Forerunner metal like it does."

That sentence was punctuated by yet another piece of said metal bouncing off the ship as it moved further out and oriented itself for the jump to hyperspace. The Dusk didn't have an AI like Cortana to plot the jump, so it took a bit more time for the helmsman to do it himself. Years of training in Slipspace didn't translate to Hyperspace overnight.

Still though, not even a few minutes after finding the sensor ghost, the Dusk once more launched into hyperspace...popping out not even a handful of seconds later at the edge of the star system. Where a familiar site awaited them, a damaged Phoenix class Colony Ship with the words Spirit of Fire proudly written on its flanks...

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Onboard that damaged ship, long-dormant systems began to come to life. On the darkened bridge, a single pinpoint of light came to life, growing brighter by the second. Soon it had coalesced into the familiar form of a human woman, beautiful features looking confused as she used the ships damaged sensor net to try and identify what had 'woken' her from her self-induced slumber. It was said slumber that even allowed her to activate...long after she should have gone rampant.

"What are you?" Serina, the AI of the Spirit of Fire, muttered as the radiation that had triggered the override on her systems dissipated.

She didn't recognized the remains of the radiation. It was similar to a ship exiting slipspace, but different at the same time. And try as she might, the AI couldn't actually find a ship in the vicinity. It was possible that a Prowler had come across the Spirit, but even the most advanced Prowler could be spotted if one looked hard enough. Still though, regardless of what had awoken her, the fact remained that something was out there. So Serina began activating specific cryopods...namely the bridge crew.

The first of the pods to open was Captain Cutter's, the older man quickly getting to his feet and moving into the bridge.

"Report," Cutter said, sitting down in his chair and looking at Serina.

"The sensors have picked up a flash of radiation similar to a slipspace portal sir," the AI replied, "however, I cannot detect a ship."

Cutter frowned, "A cloak of some sort? And how long have we been drifting?"

"A cloak is probable," Serina agreed, "and it has been twenty-one years sir."

Cutter's frown got deeper at that. The Spirit of Fire had been drifting through space after destroying the Forerunner world for twenty years? What could have happened in that time period? Did the Covenant finally win the war? Or did the UNSC push them back enough to get a cease-fire? So many things could have happened, that the state of the galaxy would probably be completely foreign to the Spirit's crew.

"Receiving a message," Serina broke into the Captain's thoughts.

"Frequency?"

"Standard UNSC broadcast," the AI replied, before the message came through the speakers, "This is Commander Richard Lash of the UNSC Dusk. Do you read me Spirit of Fire?"

Neither the Captain or the AI recognized the name of the ship or her commander. Then again, twenty years was enough time for an entirely new generation of soldiers to be trained and put on the front, so there wasn't anything surprising there. And in any case, they were too busy being relieved that it was the UNSC who had found them...even if they still couldn't see the ship in question. Actually, that was a good question...why couldn't they see the Dusk?

"This is Captain Cutter of the Spirit," Cutter answered the message, "it is good to know the UNSC has found us, but where exactly are you?"

There was momentary silence, before, "We had to confirm it was still you in command sir. Dropping cloak now."

With a slight shimmering effect, the familiar shape of a UNSC Prowler took form off the bow of the old colony ship. That was certainly new...the UNSC hadn't even been close to developing an optical cloak of that level when the Spirit had left Arcadia. Certainly not one that could fool an AI of Serina's abilities. Made one wonder what else they had developed in the twenty years the ship had slumbered.

"That's an interesting device you have there," Cutter said, as the Dusk closed formation with the Spirit.

"That's just one new thing we've gotten in the last year," Lash replied proudly, "that being said, we'll probably upgrade the Spirit back at Arcadia. Is your slipspace drive functional?"

Cutter frowned, both at the fact Arcadia was evidently still in USNC control despite the fighting retreat he had fought there, and the fact that he didn't even have a slipspace drive to report on.

"I assume you saw the planet, or what was left of it, correct?"

"Yes we did. We weren't sure what happened there though."

"That was our slipspace drive. The Covenant found a fleet of, what they called 'Forerunner' ships, hidden at the core of an artificial world. We had to use our slipspace drive as a makeshift bomb at the core of an artificial star powering the world."

Silence came over the comms again, as the crew on the Dusk let that information flow through their heads. An entire fleet of Forerunner warships? That the Covenant had almost gotten their hands on? That could have been disastrous for the UNSC, even with their new upgrades. It also explained two things...what exactly a Shield World was, and why the Spirit had been floating dead in space for twenty years. No slipspace drive meant they couldn't have returned to the UNSC even if they had wanted to. It also caused a problem though...while it was possible to tow a ship through Hyperspace, it required the towing ship to be bigger than the ship being towed. And the Dusk was certainly not bigger than the fairly massive Spirit of Fire.

"That could be a problem. The Dusk isn't large enough to tow you back to Arcadia. Is your ship functional enough to last while we get further aid?"

"Serina?" Cutter asked.

The AI's body got slightly brighter as she scanned old systems and looked over 'her' ship, "Most systems are intact, if operating at lower than preferable levels. Sitting twenty years without maintenance is hardly a good thing...sir."

Cutter sighed at that, "We're operational, but I don't know if we'll last long enough for you to return to Arcadia and back here. That would be at least a month-long trip."

"Actually it would only be a couple days at most. We have a Hyperdrive now, something that I'm sure will be explained to you once we get back to Arcadia."

With that, the Dusk curved away from the Spirit and flashed into a portal that looked like a slipspace one, but different at the same time. Needless to say, none of the still groggy crew had the slightest clue what a hyperdrive was. But if the Dusk could get to Arcadia and back in a couple days, it certainly made things easier.

"Wake up the rest of the crew Serina. I'm sure they'll appreciate the good news," Cutter ordered, setting about getting his ship back into shape.

"Roger that sir," the AI replied with a small smile.

____________________________

1500 Hours, November 17th, 2552 (Military Calendar)/

Earth, Cairo Station

____________________________

"Forerunner?" Lord Hood asked, a touch of disbelief in his voice.

Sam nodded, "The scans don't lie sir. Whatever is down there is the same technology as Installation 02 and 04...Halo."

The Commander of the UNSC Navy shook his head, "And how did they manage to build something so big, and keep it hidden so long? People have been living there for as long as humanity has existed."

The man made a good point. Or he would have, if they hadn't talked to Grieving Light. Thus, SG-1 knew that it wasn't impossible that the Forerunner had built things on Earth. They had on Arcadia and Reach after all. It would only make sense, especially if Earth was Erde-Tyrene, what Light had mentioned as being where humanity was relocated to after the Forerunner-Human War.

"If they wanted to hide something, they probably could quite easily sir," Sam replied, "I'm more curious what exactly it is."

"Ain't we all?" Johnson said gruffly from the side.

"How are we going to figure that out though?" Hood brought up, "We can't just force everyone out of New Mombasa and start digging. There are millions of people in that city."

"We can keep scanning it to figure out exactly what we're dealing with," Daniel suggested, the archeologist inside of him quite interested in anything Forerunner.

That was about all they could do at this point. Hood was right that trying to excavate would require forcing millions of people to leave their homes and lives, at a time when living space was at a premium in the UNSC. Not to mention they didn't know if the structure had failsafes to prevent tampering or anything like that. It was probably for the best that they merely studied it, and did nothing more. After all, they had an entire Halo Ring to themselves, so whatever this structure was couldn't be more important than that...right?

Of course, Murphy's Law had a liking for messing with SG-1, and that translated to their new friends in the UNSC. For they weren't the only ones to know of the structure.

"Slipspace ruptures sir!" an aid called out.

Everyone on the station shared looks at that. The UNSC had long-since phased out Slipspace drives in favor of the far more versatile Hyperdrives. That could only mean one thing...

"Damn it," Cam said, summing the thoughts of everyone up, "the Covenant found Earth."

A fleet of Covenant warships, lead by three Assault Carriers, came out of Slipspace. The ships halted for a second, seemingly shocked that the humans were actually on Earth. That shock went away quickly enough however, as the fleet flared their engines and began charging headlong at...Africa? Oh damn...they didn't know about the structure did they?

"This is Admiral Harper, we are engaging the enemy now," a voice came over the radio, as a group of ships lead by the Valiant herself moved forward.

"Belay that!" Hood called out, "something isn't right here...that fleet is tiny by Covenant standards. And they are heading directly for Africa. Is it possible the Covenant know of the structure we found?"

"Wouldn't surprise me," Cam replied, "they know a lot more than we would like anyway."

"Still, we should focus on keeping them away from Earth if they do," Hood said, "get the Odyssey out there and hold them off. We can't orient enough ODPs quickly enough if they blitz us."

"The Amber Clad will help where we can," Miranda added, saluting and rushing to her ship with Johnson.

For their part, SG-1 merely beamed aboard their own ship, the tiny Odyssey moving against the much larger Covenant ships...in time to see an ODP shell from Athens Station blast through the lead carrier. The other ships merely pushed through the debris however, not slowing down in the slightest. As the Odyssey moved forward though, swarms of landing craft split off from the ships, angling at the Super MAC platforms.

Unfortunately for the Covenant, plans had been made for just this eventuality. Flights of Saber fighters moved forward, with Longswords holding back with their more long-ranged weapons, firing into the landing craft and tearing dozens apart. When the Covenant brought in their own fighters, the job of blowing landing craft out of the 'sky' turned to the ODP's themselves, the newly fitted railguns scything them out of the sky. And then what few survived the withering fire blew apart as they collided with the shields.

"That didn't end well for them," Cam said, with a grim smile as the Odyssey swept in and nuked a CCS-class cruiser to pieces.

"No it didn't...but I still don't understand this," Sam mused, as one of the carriers flew right past the Odyssey before the 304 could do anything.

"Damn it, stop that ship!" Harper's voice came over the radio again, as the Valiant and its Marathon escorts fired everything they had at the ship.

Unfortunately, the second carrier drew enough fire off the first one that it was able to slip by, heading straight for New Mombasa. And while the UNSC Home Fleet was busy tearing apart its escorts, the Prophet of Regret continued on the mission he had been assigned by Truth...to find a Forerunner secret, and use it against the humans...

________________________________

Installation 05, Quarantine Zone

Ninth Age of Reclamation

_________________________________

Meanwhile, the battle with the Flood continued on Installation 05. The Covenant, now that the Sentinel Wall had fallen, had moved various ships into the Quarantine Zone, firing down on the Flood. It pained the crews to fire on the Holy Ring, but the other option was letting the Flood escape. So as Thel's Phantom moved towards the Library, all he could do was watch as cruisers and frigates fired plasma down on Flood strongholds. Sentinels tried in vain to stop the ships, but even a group of Enforcers were hardly able to dent a shield on a Covenant capital ship.

"So much destruction," Thel muttered, as he watched the carnage outside the dropship.

"I don't believe any of us enjoy seeing the Holy Ring damaged like this Arbiter," Rtas said, standing next to his comrade.

"But none of us would enjoy the Parasite escaping either," Nar added, as he was looking over the troops for any wounds.

Thel nodded, as the Phantom banked around an Enforcer...that was promptly blown to pieces by a passing Seraph. The Covenant weren't playing around this time, they were very determined to get the Arbiter and his team to the Library, as quickly as possible. Thus, the fact that the Seraph pulled up next to the Phantom, escorting it as the dropship approached the menacing Forerunner structure. It wasn't readily apparent how one was supposed to actually enter the Library, however.

"Pilot, do you see an entrance?!" the Arbiter called up to the cockpit.

"No!" the pilot called back.

Thus, the Phantom started circling the Library, looking for a way in. The grey Forerunner metal offered little in the way of a clue, as the spires of the structure pointed into the air, illuminated by fires raging around it. On the third pass though, the Phantom pilot noticed a small opening in the face of the structure, and lowered his craft down to it. Small was a relative term however, as the opening provided plenty of space for the Phantom to fly in. It appeared, judging from the Gondola at the end of the passageway, that it was meant for a Gondola. Nonetheless, the Phantom would suffice.

"I wonder if the Parasite has penetrated, even into the Library," Rtas said, as the Phantom set down next to the inactive Gondola.

"I would not be surprised," Thel replied, readying his 'borrowed' Hammer.

As the Phantom's hatches opened, the Sword (plus Rtas) charged out, and quickly set up a formation around the landing site. The Arbiter walked to the front of his men, looking around the area with a keen eye. The area was empty for the most part, aside from a few destroyed Sentinels. That didn't mean the Flood weren't around however, as the foul stench of the Parasite still suffused the area. In fact, Thel could see blood stains on the occasional surface.

"I will continue on alone," the Arbiter decided, "guard the Phantom."

Nar looked dubious, "Are you certain Arbiter?"

Thel looked back at his second-in-command, "Yes. If I am to regain my honor, I must retrieve the Index on my own. In any case, someone must guard the Phantom."

With that said, the Arbiter shimmered and vanished as his camo systems took effect, while the Sword (and Rtas) guarded the Phantom. Thel moved silently through the halls of the Library, passing Infection Forms and the occasional Carrier Form, but no Combat Forms. None of the Flood made any effort to attack him, even on the occasional time he had to pause to recharge the ancient cloak. There was something distinctly odd about that. This view was reinforced when he reached the central chamber.

For the Index was not alone. The shattered ruins of an Enforcer (or two) lay scattered around the central platform, with obvious Flood tentacles draped across the metal. Thel exchanged the Hammer for his Energy Sword, warily walking towards the floating Index. His eyes scanned the area, watching for any Flood. Yet, none came. The central chamber was eerily empty and silent, not a single sign of the Flood aside from the tentacles and the ruined Enforcer(s).

The Index...surely it can't be this easy... Thel thought warily, as he used a piece of the Enforcer as a makeshift bridge to grab the green object.

"Well done Arbiter," a familiar voice said from behind him.

As Thel turned around, he saw the Chieftain that had been in the Sentinel Wall. The Jiralhanae had followed him here?

"What do you want?"

"The Sacred Icon," the Brute replied simply.

Thel growled at that, "Retrieving the Index is my mission Jiralhanae."

The ape actually snorted at that, "A mission given to you by what claimed to be an Oracle. The Prophets have decreed that I am to return it to High Charity."

Thel looked around, seeing more of the apes surrounding him. He growled again, but there wasn't a choice here. He didn't understand what the Prophets were asking of him in giving the Index to a Brute, but if what the ape said was true...he had no choice. The Arbiter could not go against the Prophets, such had been true for centuries.

"Very well," Thel said, handing the device over.

"Good...bye Arbiter," the Jiralahane replied, suddenly spinning around and slamming Thel with his Hammer...sending the Arbiter flying down the central path...into darkness.

[Skywalker_T-65]

Installation 05

_______________________________________

Arbiter Thel 'Vadamee groaned as he opened his eyes. The last thing he remembered was retrieving the Index then...being betrayed. Was that Jiralhanae acting on his own, or were the Hierarchs behind it? Thel had seen the Brutes replacing his own people, slowly but surely, after his failure against the Humans. But for one of them to attack the Arbiter of the Covenant...it wasn't possible, was it? Surely, the Hierarchs wouldn't destroy the Covenant when they were starting to struggle against the humans...right?

Of course, those thoughts didn't distract the Arbiter enough that he didn't notice his current situation...namely being held in the air by one of the Flood tentacles he had seen in the Library.

What is the meaning of this?! he thought, trying to grab his Energy Sword to cut himself free.

Before Thel could reach the blade, he felt his body jerked aside as the tentacle retracted towards whatever its source was. As the Arbiter struggled against his bonds, he saw a shadow fall across his body. Looking up, the Sangheili felt an involuntary shudder go through his bones...for towering above him was the largest Parasite he had ever seen. The creature had a recognizable 'head' but below that was nothing but a mass of writhing tentacles.

The 'head' turned to the Arbiter as he continued to struggle and said, "You have come at last to my grave."

Thel continued to struggle, "Kill me or release me Parasite! Do not waste my time with talk!"

If anything, the massive Parasite managed to look amused at the Sangheili's continuing struggles to escape, "Your mind is deluded, and that allowed me to bring you here."

Needless to say, Thel turned his full attention to the Parasite at that. Something that proved worthwhile, as he saw another tentacle rise up from the floor holding...an Oracle! The red ball of light coalesced into a dirty metal sphere, its red 'eye' staring at the Arbiter. There was visible damage to the Oracle, making it clear it had been captured by the Parasite, not joined willingly.

Thel was shocked to see this, to put it mildly. Oracles were holy to the Covenant...the only one they had ever encountered (aside from the messages from, presumably, this damaged one) sitting in the Dreadnought on High Charity. To see one in this state, and captured by the Parasite...it was hard. And certainly not something the Arbiter had ever wanted to see.

"Greetings, I am 2401 Penitent Tangent, Monitor of Installation 05," the Oracle said, before noticing who 'he' was talking to, "Oh! You are the leader of the group I had retrieve the Index! Hurry, we must activate this Installation at once!"

Before Thel could comment on that, the Parasite shook its massive head dismissively, "Do you know what this...Monitor...asks you to do? It desires this Ring to be all our graves."

Thel turned to the Oracle, "What do you mean by activating the Holy Ring, Oracle? Would that not begin the Great Journey?"

Somehow, Penitent Tangent managed to move slightly, in an approximation of shaking 'his' head, "No, no, no! I don't know what you are talking about, but the purpose of this Ring is to destroy all Flood biomass. This is done by firing a pulse across the Galaxy with the other Six Installations, to wipe out all sentient lifeforms capable of feeding the Flood!"

"What?!" The Arbiter shouted...but once again, the Parasite cut off any questions by dragging the Oracle back down into the depths of its 'nest'.

The massive creature moved closer to the Arbiter, its foul breath wafting over his armored body. The mouth moved, almost as if the monster was contemplating something, opening up large enough to swallow the Sangheili whole. But, unlike every other Parasite Thel had ever encountered, it made no move to consume him. In fact, the Parasite began talking once more.

"Your Great Journey, and his activation are one and the same," the beast said in its deep voice, "your leaders have blinded you to the truth!"

Thel shook his head, "You lie!"

"If you will not listen, I shall show you," the monster said, "I shall return you to where you came, as there is still time to stop the key from turning."

With that, the Parasite started to throw Thel aside, before the Arbiter saw golden rings of light surround him...then...darkness.

-HSG-HSG-HSG-HSG-HSG-HSG-HSG-HSG-HSG-HSG-

Once the darkness cleared from his vision, Thel found himself standing on the platform with the ruined Enforcers. Reaching down, he found his Carbine and Energy Sword still in place, though the Hammer had been lost. Quickly drawing the Carbine, the Arbiter ran out into the now empty halls, hearing gunfire echoing from in front of him. Bursting through the last exit, he saw the Phantom he had arrived in...it was burnt by Plasma fire, but still flyable. Surrounding it were the Sword members and the survivors from the Sentinel Wall, fighting with a group of Jiralhanae and Yan'me.

Not even questioning the situation, Thel quickly brought his rifle to his shoulder and fired on the lead Brute. The green cone of radioactive energy melted a hole in the side of the ape's head, quickly bringing it down. His comrades turned around, and suddenly found themselves under attack from two directions. Continuing to run forward, Thel switched for his Energy Sword, and primed a plasma grenade in his other hand.

"Die beasts!" the Arbiter shouted, hitting one of the flying Yan'me with the grenade before decapitating a Jiralhanae with a quick swing from his sword.

Ducking under a swing from an enraged Brute, Thel brought his sword up and cut into its outstretched arm, as the plasma grenade detonated and burned the beasts back while blowing most of the insectoid fighters into pieces. The Jiralhanae roared and flinched backward at the pain from two directions, before a blue ball of plasma burned through its skull, dropping it to the floor.

"Arbiter!" Nar called out, lowering his smoking Plasma Rifle as Thel stood to his full height.

Moving over to his comrades, Thel asked, "What happened here?"

Rtas stepped forward, "We were waiting for you to return as you requested Arbiter..."

"...when a Jiralhanae Chieftain went after you. After a while he returned with the Sacred Icon, and ordered his troops to attack us. He left in another Phantom while our own was forced down. Then you returned," Nar finished.

Thel shook his head slightly. Nothing made sense anymore...the Oracle captured by the Parasite, the Jiralhanae betraying the Covenant...or the Prophets ordering them to do so. He had to figure out what was going on outside of the Library, to know if this was just a rouge Chieftain out for glory, or a deliberate attempt to eliminate him.

"Have you been able to contact the Everlasting Solitude?"

"Not as of yet Arbiter," Nar replied.

Thel shook his head again, before boarding the Phantom with the rest of the surviving troops. The pilot had been killed when the transport was forced down, so the Arbiter took the controls himself, flying the purple craft out of the Library...into a sight that made even his blood run cold. For shattered hulks of Covenant warships lay scattered around the Quarantine Zone, still fresh fires burning around them. Only one still seemed to be flying, and that was his own Corvette, that had taken shelter in the area directly next to the Library, and out of sight of Jiralhanae ships.

"By the Prophets," Rtas said, clenching his fist in anger.

"Precisely," Thel replied, his own anger showing in his voice, "by the order of the Prophets, if what the Jiralhanae said is to be believed."

Angling for his Corvette, Thel couldn't help but wonder what had brought this about. After all, what could possibly have convinced the Hierarchs to order the destruction of the Sangheili? For that was the only way to explain the burning ships. And then...there was what the Parasite had claimed...that Halo would not save the Covenant, but kill them all.

He had to get to High Charity, and uncover exactly what was true...and what were lies.

___________________________________

1530 Hours, November 17th, 2552 (Military Calendar)/

Earth

____________________________________

Meanwhile, back at Earth, things had gone bad. Regret's Carrier had managed to drop into a hover over New Mombassa, while the rest of his fleet had been destroyed. And there wasn't a single thing that could be done to shoot that carrier down...it was too large, and God only knew what a Super-MAC shell could do to the Forerunner structure under the city, even leaving aside that would be killing millions of civilians.

However, there was another option. A group of cruisers formed up over the city (and over the Covenant warship), and powered up newly installed systems. These systems had replaced the old drop-pods, and were situated in the ODST drop bays. The systems in question? They were beaming systems, designed to allow the Shock Troopers to reach the surface quicker, and safer, than in their old pods. It had the added bonus of being able to beam through Covenant shields that were not designed to stop such an attack.

"Alright, you all know your jobs!" an ODST by the name of Buck shouted out, walking amongst the Troopers, "take the engine room and bridge, and kill anything in-between!"

"Oorah!"

"We're ready to beam down," Buck relayed to the bridge, once all the troops had been situated.

"Roger that...beaming...now!" the bridge officer replied, as white light surrounded everyone in the drop bay.

Down above New Mombassa, the Covenant had no idea what was happening. One second they were preparing to land their own troops in the city, to clear it of humans in preparation for finding the Holy Artifact. The next, white light dropped hundreds of humans inside their ship. The ODST's, for their part, were still somewhat disoriented from the beaming, but quickly recovered.

Submachine guns and assault rifles barked as the men and women started firing into shocked Covenant, who didn't even have time to ready weapons before they were gunned down. Once their initial drop-off areas were clear, the ODSTs started to move in two different directions. One group headed to secure the engines, while the other moved on the bridge, to take control of the ship and capture the Prophet of Regret.

"Dare, do you have the Prophet in sight?" Buck quietly asked into his radio as he lead his own group down side-passages to the bridge.

"Roger that," a female voice replied...the resident ONI spook having beamed aboard the ship early, "he has not left the bridge since the alarms sounded. Honor Guards are taking up positions around the entrances however."

"Can you hit any of them from your position?"

"The cloak is good, but it isn't that good Buck," Dare's voice sounded exasperated, "I can get a grenade on one group from the north. If you can reach that group, I would recommend it."

Buck didn't reply, he just waved his group forward. At the front of the group was an ODST nicknamed 'Rookie'. The man was new to the team, but his tendency to be extremely quiet was a virtue here, since he would be the first to notice any Covenant and could warn the rest of the squad, and by extension the rest of the assault force heading for the bridge. The plan was to avoid any entanglements however...if the Covenant knew they were coming for the bridge (something they knew the location of thanks to the Ascendant Justice) they would likely reinforce it.

Of course, no plan survives contact with the enemy...as a swarm of red and blue plasma fire flew down the corridor, downing two ODST's who were caught in the crossfire.

"Down!" Buck barked out, dropping to his stomach.

The rest of the strike force followed suit, returning fire with whatever weapons they had to hand...including a sniper rifle in the case of Romeo, a member of Bucks own Squad. All of them were spraying bullets down the hall, and if the roars of pain were any indication, they were at least hitting something. Continuing to crawl forward, Buck took up a position next to the Rookie, who had crouched in a slight bend in the hall and was carefully aiming down the scope of an M6C pistol. Right before Buck could tap him on the shoulder to get a report, a trio of bullets came out of the pistol in quick succession...and a Brute dropped to the deck, blood poring from three bullet holes in its forehead.

Shaking his head slightly to wipe the shock, Buck tapped the Rookie. The silent man turned his head, helmet obscuring his face. Buck pointed down the hall, communicating silently in case the Covenant were listening in on their transmissions. The Rookie replied by holding up five fingers, pointing to the left, then putting up three and pointing to where the Brute was...before dropping one of those fingers.

"So we've got five on one side, and two on the other?" the Sergeant asked.

The Rookie nodded, before ducking as a piece of shrapnel flew a bit to close for comfort. The ODST pushed his submachine around the curve this time, firing a quick burst that seemed to hit an Elite judging from the sound of the angry roar...hit, but not kill.

"I'm thinking we should have brought heavier weapons Sarge!" another one of Buck's squad, Mickey, called out.

"Can it back there and keep shooting!" Buck shouted back...even if he did agree, as he fired his own MA5C.

The ODSTs, for all their training and armor, were not Spartans. They couldn't just charge up and beat the enemy to death, as the two dead men in the hall empathized. Still, as an Elite fell to Buck's fire, they were making progress. But the longer it took, the sooner the Covenant could get more forces into position. Even though the other pushes to the bridge would still move forward (especially the one with the Spartans that had also beamed aboard) they couldn't afford to take too much time here.

Thus...

"Fire in the hole!" Mickey shouted, tossing several grenades down the hall.

Roars of indignation echoed...before a fairly sizable explosion drowned them out, and sent chunks of armor and bodies flying in every direction. Buck and the Rookie moved from their cover, VISRs active to see through the smoke from burning power conduits. The two warily moved to where the Covenant had been...and had died. Not a soul was in sight, alive anyway.

"Move up!" Buck shouted back, as the strike force continued on their path...while other teams moved through the rest of the ship.

-HSG-HSG-HSG-HSG-HSG-HSG-HSG-HSG-HSG-HSG-HSG-HSG-HSG-HSG-HSG-

"No Covenant in sight," Kelly said over Blue Teams radio.

"Roger that," John replied, moving forward under his cloak.

Behind him came three other Spartan-II's...Will, Fred, and Grace. All of the Spartans were under Sodan cloaks, using the stealth the cloaks provided them to move past the Covenant quicker than just shooting their way through. Not that there were that many Covenant around anyway...it seemed that the ODST's were doing a fine job of drawing all the guards onto them instead of the Spartans, who were moving through a less-traveled passageway identified on the Ascendant Justice. The passageway seemed to be mostly used by the Engineers (a handful of whom had been found alive on the Justice and since transferred to the Infinity), and that meant the Covenant weren't guarding it.

Security aboard alien warships had proven to be rather lax really, though one could hardly blame them for being shocked when hundreds of humans appeared out of thin air...naturally the mostly ignored Engineer tunnels would be left unguarded when they had bigger, or at least more obvious, problems with the ODST troops.

"Elite ahead," Kelly's voice came back, leading to the Spartans halting their movement.

Unlike a Covenant cloak, the Sodan cloaks (by virtue of transferring the user to another dimension) didn't leave a noticeable shimmer effect. Because of that, the Elite never saw Kelly bringing her knife into his throat. Once the body stopped struggling, the female Spartan moved it aside and Blue Team continued to move forward.

"We're nearly at the bridge," Cortana's voice said in the Chief's 'head'.

Indeed, the Spartan's enhanced hearing could pick up the sound of frantic shouting. It was in a different language, but the translators built into their armor allowed the humans to understand what was being said.

"Do not allow the Humans to take this ship! The Holy Artifact is here, and we shall find it!"

Taking advantage of the distraction that this shouting created, the Spartans carefully crept through an unguarded door onto the bridge. With the bridge being buried deep in the hull of the Assault Carrier, the only lighting was from the consoles and the sparse overhead lights. This was little trouble for the Spartans with their enhanced eyesight, but it made it even harder for the Covenant guards to see the door opening that let them in.

Still, these guards were not small in number...at least a dozen of the highly trained Honor Guards were gathered around the room, energy swords out and activated. There was twice that number of Grunts and Jackals with their own plasma pistols and needlers drawn.

"Four Honor Guards by the Prophet, two more by each door," Will reported as he scanned the room.

"Kelly north door, Will west, Fred south, Grace east," John ordered.

Acknowledgment lights flashed as each of the Spartans moved to position, with John himself retracting a blade from his gauntlet behind the most ornately armored Honor Guard. Each of the Spartans waited for a signal to begin their attack...a signal that came in the form of an explosion from the hallway. Evidently the ODSTs had gotten close enough that Dare had used her grenade (Cortana was monitoring all transmissions). The Honor Guards surrounding the room had braced and raised their weapons towards the doors...a critical mistake.

For four Spartan-II supersoldiers decloaked in their midst, and immediately opened fire with assault rifles and shotguns. With the exception of the Master Chief, who brought his knife into the back of the head Honor Guard, quickly killing him before pulling the blade out and blasting the other Guards with a shotgun. Within a matter of seconds, it was all over. Blood leaked out into the deck, while the Prophet of Regret floated in stunned silence at the speed and brutality with which his guard had been killed.

"Demons!"

Of course, that didn't last long. A golden light flashed from the ornate chair the Prophet was floating in, blasting Will into a wall. It didn't pierce his shield however, and the Spartan was quickly returning fire with his rifle-aimed at the chair, not the Prophet. But it wouldn't have mattered where he had aimed, as a golden shield came to life around the chair, reflecting all the bullets.

"That shield is strong Chief," Cortana reported as John ducked a blast from the Prophet, "I don't think we have the firepower to bring it down from a distance."

"Melee?" the Chief asked, firing a blast from his shotgun.

"Possibly. That or get close enough to use a Zat on him."

Nodding his head ever so slightly, John sent a quick handsignal at the other Spartans. They flashed their acknowledgment lights, and began to focus fire on Regret from multiple directions. The Prophet spun around, firing repeatedly, but not managing to hit anything. He was blasting bodies and pieces of consoles all around however, creating a maelstrom of flying debris that would have killed lesser humans.

Not the Spartans however, as they merely took the hits and kept firing. Except for John, who had once again activated his cloak. Moving forward under the distraction of the rest of Blue Team, John pulled out his Zat, and jumped onto the Prophet's throne. Decloaking to use his weapon, Regret saw nothing but a massive green form towering over him, and tried to shake the Chief off.

"Unhand me Demon!" the Prophet shouted...before John fired his Zat.

The blue lightning skittered across the Prophet's body, shaking it before spreading to the throne and deactivating its sensitive components. John jumped off the throne before it hit the ground, keeping his Zat aimed at Regret. The gunfire outside had stopped too, as ODSTs began to filter onto the bridge. Even with the helmets up, it was obvious that the elite, but normal, humans were shocked at the devastation wrought by the Spartans...something John and his team were more than familiar with.

"Is the Prophet alive?" an ODST in recon-styled armor asked.

John looked down and put a hand on Regret's neck. Unfortunately...it seemed the Prophet's body was too frail. So the Spartan shook his head in the negative.

"Damn it," Dare cursed, "did you use a Zat?"

"Yes," the Chief replied.

Dare sighed, "So even that is too strong. We'll need tranquilizers then."

That was the smallest of their problems though. For, unnoticed by anyone, the Covenant crew had been in the midst of a task when the Spartans had ruined the bridge. The first anyone knew of what was going to happen was when one of them noticed a console lighting up, even more so than normal. Fred ran over to it, joined by Dare. The two looked over the unfamiliar controls, before a gasp drew their attention.

Looking back up, the Spartan and ODST saw a view from the external cameras...a view of a slipspace portal forming!

"Damn it! Someone abort the launch!"

"We can't," Cortana's voice came from John's helmet speakers, "it's already set, there is nothing we can do to stop it this far along."

Thus, the crew could do nothing but watch as the city of New Mombassa was damaged by the slipspace rupture...then...darkness. The destination was unknown, but one thing was certain, they still needed to clear this ship out. And they needed to do it before they arrived at whatever the destination programed into the ship was. Still, they could at least try and stop the ship early.

"Insert me into the system Chief," Cortana said, inside the helmet this time.

John didn't reply, he just reached up to his helmet, and removed Cortana's chip. He then moved his armored fist next to an intact console, a flash of blue light announcing Cortana merging with the data stream of the Carriers systems.

"Hmm...roomy in here," the AI mused, "scanning the systems...the Covenant are locking down every area they still control. I'm detecting at least one thousand surviving soldiers. Mostly Grunts, but there are Elites and Brutes in the groups too."

"Where exactly are they," Buck asked, readying his submachine gun to jump back into the fray.

"Mostly clustered around hangars," Cortana replied, "there are a few near the engine rooms too, but the rest of the strike force are pushing them back."

Buck nodded, and moved out with most of his men, a token force staying behind to guard the bridge. John turned to Blue Team, and nodded at Fred and Grace. The other two nodded back, accepting the mission of guarding the bridge. For their part, John and Kelly reactivated their Sodan cloaks and moved out to hit the hangars. The mission was simple...clear the ship of any and all Covenant forces before they arrived at its destination.

[Eternal_Freedom]

Awesome.

[Skywalker_T-65]

Orbit of Installation 05, 9th Age of Reclamation
___________________________________________________

The Everlasting Solitude left the atmosphere of Halo, flaring its engines as the small ship climbed higher into space. Around it, balls of flame fell back towards Halo...shattered hulks of Covenant warships. The small corvette dodged around the ruined warships, suddenly seeming very small indeed as half an Assault Carrier fell past it. All this devastation was centered on High Charity herself, the massive space station lit up in the dark as blue and red bolts of plasma crisscrossed over it as the Second Fleet of Homogeneous Clarity tore itself apart. While chaotic to an extreme, there was an organization to the madness nonetheless...something that someone as skilled as Arbiter Thel 'Vadamee would pick out.

"The Jiralhanae have betrayed us," the Sangheili growled, "and so to have the Prophets."

For when one examined the chaos closer, they would see the Jiralahane controlled ships of the Second Fleet attacking the Sangheili ones...though there did seem to be some Brutes who stood by the Elites, though they were very much in the minority. The reason the Arbiter included the Prophets? High Charity's own defenses were firing on Sangheili and 'Loyalist' as Thel had termed them, Jiralhanae ships. Those defenses were under direct control of the Prophet of Moderation, and thus, proof that this was not a Jiralhanae coup.

"The Revenant is approaching," Nar reported, having taken up a station on the bridge, "Plasma Lines are charged and targeting us Arbiter."

Thel cursed, "Attempt to contact our brothers. We can not fight a frigate on our own."

Small by Covenant standards it may have been, the Revenant would be perfectly capable of vaporizing the tiny Everlasting Solitude if it got even one hit in.

"Lawgiver received our request and is providing support," Rtas reported this time, as a large Carrier fired a plasma torpedo at the Jiralahane ship. The frigate was knocked off course, and the gap this formed allowed the Solitude to continue on its path towards High Charity. It would never arrive.

"Slipspace rupture!"

A swirling vortex of energy formed off the bow of the Solitude, neatly severing the Revenant in half. Out of the vortex came the distinctive hooked bow of an Assault Carrier. Plowing aside what was left of the frigate, the Carrier came to a sudden halt, doing nothing to attack either side in the sudden Civil War. It was possible the crew was just in shock, but Thel somehow doubted that...Jiralhanae would jump right into any battle, and the same was true of Sangheilli if their brothers were being slaughtered.

So who was in command of this Carrier? And which Assault Carrier was it? Turning to his trusted second in command, Thel asked Nar that very question. The red-armored Sangheili manipulated his controls, and looked for the identification tag of the Carrier. When he found it, Nar looked as shocked as he ever had.

"Its the Solemn Penance," the younger Sangheili answered, "Regret."

Considering the betrayal by the Prophets, that should have prompted problems. However, if any of the San 'Shyuum would stay loyal to the Sangheili, it was Regret. It would also explain why the ship had yet to open fire...Regret would likely be attempting to contact Truth and Mercy, to ascertain what was going on. On the other hand, Regret was by far the most impulsive of the Prophets. It made little sense for him to wait to do anything. Leave alone a battle like this. And they couldn't pick up any signals coming from that ship.

But what could the Solitude do about it? If the frigate would have killed them, that carrier could simply fire its pulse laser turrets and have enough firepower to obliterate the shield-less Solitude. That being said, something had to be done or they could be caught in the crossfire if either side of the civil war decided to open fire on the ship. Best to figure out what was going on with Regret, as soon as possible. How to do that though...no choice...

"Land in the hangar," Thel ordered, reloading his carbine.

"Arbiter?" the helmsman, a Kig-Yar, asked.

"If Regret is aboard that vessel, I will get answers from him," the Arbiter replied grimly.

The Kig-Yar nodded hesitantly, and changed course away from the battle raging around High Charity, and towards the silent Solemn Penance. The vessels hangars responded to the codes sent by the Everlasting Solitude...but there was no welcoming party. The massive hangars were empty aside from the Spirit and Phantom dropships needed for any invasion the vessel supported. Not even any Huragok were present. The corvette set down in the designated position for a ship of its size (the same area as on the Ascendant Justice) before Thel and a strike force disembarked from his vessel.

The Arbiter, Nar, Rtas and their escorts had their weapons raised as they left the corvette, ready for an ambush. Regret had Jiralahane aboard his vessel, and it was entirely possible some of them might try and kill the Arbiter of the Covenant, just like that Chieftain had done. As it turned out, the hangar truly was empty, not a soul in sight. The vehicles were there but there was no sign of the crew, or any signs of battle that might have killed the crew...at least not in the expansive hangar bays.

"What has happened to the crew?" Rtas wondered, as Nar opened a hatch to the interior of the Carrier.

The hatch opened silently, revealing a dark hallway with signs of battle littering it. Discarded plasma weapons littered the floor, and Thel could barely make out a pile of bodies in the distance. It was obvious someone had made battle in these halls. What was more damning, however, was the golden glint scattered over the floor. Leaning down to pick one up, the Arbiter growled and crushed the debris in his hands.

"Humans..."

___________________________________

Meanwhile...

___________________________________

Regret's carrier, by now identified as the Solemn Penance was finally coming out of its slipspace portal. The ODSTs and Spartans had long since cleared out the ship of any stragglers, leaving the vessel much like its sister Ascendant Justice...fully under human control. Or, rather, fully under AI control. Cortana was like a kid in a candy store, looking through everything inside the ship's database. Schematics, Covenant deployment patterns...the location of their capital. And wasn't that an interesting find. High Charity...that station was larger than anything short of a Halo Ring.

Needless to say, she wasn't looking forward to having to assault that thing with anything short of a NOVA. Unfortunately, by all indications, the ship was heading there. She didn't know for sure, as some data had been deleted before she could reach it...but it still seemed from communications that Regret was to return to High Charity if his fleet were destroyed. Word of Reach seemed to have spread through the Covenant ranks if they had a formal retreat order in place.

"Cortana," John's voice interrupted the AI in her thoughts, "where are we?"

Shaking her head, Cortana focused the external sensors of the Penance on the surrounding area. Now that it was out of Slipspace, the sensors had come back online...though the amount of conflicting data nearly overwhelmed them. And likely would have if not for her filtering the data. The single biggest piece of data was something she had certainly not wanted to see...

"Bringing up the cameras now," Cortana said, sounding more subdued than normal.

For when the cameras came online, the sight greeting the impromptu crew drew curses from the ODST's that knew what they were seeing, and narrowed eyes from the Spartans. Floating in orbit of a gas giant was another Halo. It wasn't Installation 02 or 04, so this had to be a new Halo...and then they saw the swarms of Covenant warships floating around it.

"The Covenant found a Halo?" Fred asked.

"They can't know how to use it," Dare said cautiously, "or they would have by now."

"I don't think they want to use it," Buck commented casually.

The comment was easy to understand, when the cameras zoomed in on the massive structure, something Cortana knew to be High Charity, in the distance. Weapons fire and Covenant ships being blown to pieces. This could only be a civil war in the making...or a revolt of some sort. Regardless of what it was, the fact remained that the Covenant were blowing each other apart. Realistically, the ships should have gone back into Slipspace, now that Cortana had full control...leave the Covenant to blow themselves apart.

But the Halo threw a wrench into that plan. Even with the Covenant killing each other, that Ring couldn't be left intact. Installation 02 was one thing...the UNSC were the only ones who knew of its existence, and Grieving Light's main body was still there keeping it safe. Leaving a ring the Covenant knew of intact was a very bad idea, on multiple levels.

"A corvette is trying to land in the hangar," Cortana reported, breaking into the crew's thoughts.

"Can you destroy it?" Kelly asked.

"Easily," the AI replied.

"Don't," John said.

Everyone turned to look at the Chief, only the Spartans and Cortana getting even an inkling of what was going through his head. Turning his visor out to the 'crew' John began to walk to the exit of the bridge.

"The crew of that corvette can't be very large," the Spartan began, "we are still under standing orders to capture Covenant technology whenever possible. And if we can take the crew captive, we will know more about what is going on here."

Dare nodded thoughtfully, "The Chief has a point. Alright, relay orders to the rest of the strike force...make themselves scarce and let the Spartans handle capturing the Corvette."

John nodded at the female ODST as the Spartans activated their cloaks once more and slipped out into the hallway. The super-soldiers would normally be doing so to sneak up on, and kill, any Covenant they found. This time it was different...none of the Penance's crew had been captured alive. With the revelation the Covenant had found another Halo and seemed to be in the grips of a Civil War, it suddenly became important to secure intelligence however, and whenever, possible. The quickest way to do so was to capture sufficiently high-ranking Covenant soldiers.

The fact that this would allow them to capture another Covenant warship was a bonus to be sure. Even with bot the Faith and Justice under their control, having more ships could only be a good thing.

"Elites," Kelly reported sometime later.

Kneeling in the hallway was an imposing Elite in armor that none of the Spartans recognized. It looked more ceremonial than functional...even more so than the Honor Guards had been. Then there was the Covenant soldiers behind the kneeling Elite. All of their armors resembled the first Elites to some extent (with the exception of the Spec Ops Elite). What was odd, was the fact that...aside from the red-armored one, they were all wearing green. The Covenant never wore green armor, so something was seriously off there.

That being said, it wasn't the Spartan's job to contemplate things like that. As the Elite got back to his feet, the Spartans fired a barrage of Zat fire from under their cloaks. The Elite's shields held for the first couple blasts, but soon enough the Covenant warriors were down for the count. The Spartans moved into the docked Corvette, continuing their methodical work before moving the Covenant soldiers to the brig aboard the Penance...now shaking slightly as Cortana was forced to take evasive maneuvers to avoid fire from Covenant ships that had finally noticed the Assault Carrier's arrival...

__________________________________________________

1600 Hours, November 17th, 2552 (Military Calendar)/

Earth

___________________________________________________

"Damn it, he got away," Cam said, looking out the bridge of the Odyssey as the displaced 304 floated over what was left of New Mombassa.

While the outskirts of the town were intact, the center bore definite scars from the slipspace rupture. It was burning in parts, and buildings had just...vanished. Scans of the Orbital Elevator showed it was barely holding itself together. SG-1 didn't even want to think of how many people had died in the center of the city...especially those who had been in buildings lost in slipspace. Thus the reason the Odyssey was floating around the city...providing relief efforts while Sam and Kalmiya worked to figure out the path the Covenant ship had taken.

This was more difficult than one would think, as a slipspace portal was harder to judge than a hyperspace trail as far as telling the destination goes. Not impossible, especially not with hyper-advanced Asgard sensors, but not easy either. Thankfully, they had one of the smartest women in any reality, along with the 'prototype' of Cortana working on the problem. All in all, if these two couldn't figure it out with this ship, nothing could.

"For now at least," Sam replied, deep in her work, "not forever though."

"Are you certain you can track that Carrier?" Miranda Keyes asked over the radio, her own In Amber Clad floating nearby...unofficial escort of the Odyssey after the last mission.

"Give me enough time, and I can track anything," Sam replied confidently, "how are the scans on the structure?"

With the Odyssey focusing on tracking Regret's carrier, the In Amber Clad was using its less advanced sensor net to keep an eye on the Forerunner building. None aboard either ship knew what a slipspace rupture would do to the structure, and they had to make sure it wouldn't blow up or something. Especially not when the entire remaining populations of Old and New Mombassa had to be evacuated...such was the size of the structure. Even the nearby town of Voi was considered in the danger zone if the thing activated.

"As of now, nothing new," Miranda replied, sounding faintly relieved, "it's more exposed than it was, but otherwise..."

That was a relief. One less thing for the crews of both vessels to focus on, allowing more work to be spent on the tasks they had set already. At least until something started making a very ominous noise that could be heard over the engines of the respective ship.

"Sam...what am I hearing?" Daniel asked.

"The elevator..."

The tortured structure, long the center of life in the city...perhaps the entire African coast, was swaying dangerously. While the elevator had been designed to take heavy stresses by default, it hadn't been designed to hold its integrity in the event of a slipspace portal going off right next to it. It was something of a miracle the structure had survived this long...that didn't mean it was good to see it sway like that.

"Evacuate everyone!" Cam shouted.

Orders went out to Pelicans, Warthogs and other transports. People were rushed out of houses, leaving their lives behind in the hopes of escaping before the Elevator came down. It would never be enough warning however...not with how large the Orbital Elevator was. With a final rending crash, the hoops of the elevator began snapping in half, sending the structure into even more of a sway. The Odyssey and In Amber Clad moved away, barely dodging the elevator as it finally came crashing to the ground.

Smoke filled New Mombassa, as buildings collapsed and the elevator was left a ruined mess, with only a small section near the bottom intact. The city itself was left even more of a ruin. It would take years to repair the damage, if indeed it were ever repaired...the UNSC had access, almost, to the Forerunner structure and it may just be easier to demolish what was left of the town now.

That would be in the future however, as soon after the elevator fell to the ground, Sam finished her calculations.

"I know where the Carrier is," the resident scientist of SG-1 said, pulling up a star chart, "it should be in this star system."

"Well what are we waiting for?" Cam asked.

After getting permission from Lord Hood to try and find the Carrier (a full complement of ODSTs and five Spartans was too valuable an asset to not try and find) the ship prepared to leave. Miranda Keyes had to come along however, as Hood wanted a UNSC ship with the Odyssey at all times, if possible, to avoid SG-1 speaking for the UNSC anymore. SG-1 could understand where he was coming from too...it made sense to keep a UNSC ship nearby if they came across another Halo or something like that. Didn't mean they particularly liked having a baby-sitter though. Not that Miranda liked it either, but that's a moot point...orders were orders, and right now SG-1 was part of the UNSC command structure. Albeit with a lot of freedom, but still part of the overall human command structure, to avoid issues.

Thus, both ships left behind the burning city of New Mombassa, heading back into orbit. Once they had cleared the debris field left behind by Regret's fleet, the two ships entered hyperspace windows. Neither crew knew exactly what they would find, nor could they really be prepared for what they would find either...not even SG-1...

[Skywalker_T-65]

2000 Hours, November 17th, 2552 (Military Calendar)/

Installation 05

---

The battle around High Charity continued to rage on, as the Covenant tore itself apart. Ships of both sides burned and exploded, lighting up the night. An Assault Carrier was the only Covenant vessel in the area not participating in the battle, as it moved to cover around the Halo. This ship was the Solemn Penance, flagship of the Prophet of Regret. At least, that was what it was to the Covenant, on both sides of their Civil War. The fact was, though, that the ship was not under Covenant control any longer.

And the human crew could still barely believe their eyes as they watched the hated enemy tear itself apart.

"Well," Buck began, "can't say I'm sorry to see this."

Dare snorted, "I am. At least when the Covenant were united we knew what we were fighting. Split apart like this, I don't know if I should be happy or worried."

"Why is that ma'am?" one of the Spartan's asked.

"We don't know why the Covenant split," the ONI officer answered, "for all we know, one side is tired of the war...or even more extreme than the Covenant itself."

The idea of there being a faction in the Covenant that was more extreme than glassing every Human world in sight was terrifying. Terrifying, but not entirely impossible. If they had figured out the function of the Halos and been divided on using it for example...that could be the case, where a breakaway faction wanted to activate the Ring, while the rest of the Covenant didn't want to commit suicide.

Not a pretty thought.

"Major Dare," a voice came over the communications systems, "the leader of the Covenant forces has woken up."

"On my way," the ONI officer replied, setting off towards the Carrier's brig.

As she walked, the Assault Carrier continued to shake slightly, as Cortana dodged fire from a few stray Covenant warships. Dare ignored that though, concentrating on getting down towards the brig. Waiting for her inside the expansive room, were four of the Spartans. The supersoldiers surrounded a single cell, where an Elite in ornate armor glared out at them.

The Covenant Warrior stood tall as he glared at his human counterparts. The Spartans seemed distinctly nonplussed though, as they saluted Dare. The blonde woman returned the salutes, before walking up to John. The Master Chief nodded at the official commander of the mission, as the two walked away from the cell containing the Elite.

"Has he said anything?" Dare asked, nodding at the warrior.

"No," John replied, "nothing yet."

The ONI officer sighed, before shaking her head, "We have to get something out of him. That armor isn't standard...this Elite is high ranked. I want to know just how high."

"One of my Spartans could get your answer."

Dare shuddered slightly. Even to an Elite, she didn't want to think about Spartan interrogation techniques. Even if the Supersoldiers were trying to be gentle, it would be more painful than she could imagine. Against a Covenant warrior, they wouldn't try to be gentle. Needless to say, she vetoed that option right away. They needed the commander intact if they were going to get any information out of the Elite. Beating him senseless wouldn't help in that regard, not at all.

"Let's keep that option in reserve," the ONI officer told the Spartan, "let me try getting him to talk myself."

John inclined his head ever so slightly, as Dare walked over to the Elite. The Covenant warrior looked down her, as the ONI officer walked up to him.

"What do you want human?" the warrior finally spoke up, his voice filtered through a translator in Dare's ear.

"Information," the woman replied, fairly certain that such a (seemingly) high-ranked Elite could understand English, "what is going on in the Covenant leadership? Do you know what Halo can do? Troop positions?"

If the Elite could snort, he probably would have, "I see no reason to tell you anything human."

"If you won't talk, I can send my friends in," Dare said, nodding at the Spartans.

"Torture will gain you nothing."

Dare breathed out a frustrated sigh, before starting to pace. She didn't want to send the Spartans in, since anything they got from torture would be inaccurate at best, outright lies at worst. They needed to get the Elite to talk willingly, and that was not going to be easy, considering the mutual hatred each race had for the other. Humans for the destruction at the hands of the Covenant, and the Elites for the 'affront to their gods' that humanity represented.

Needless to say, getting anything out of the Elite was going to be a miracle. Unless, of course, they could find something to get him to talk. The question then became, naturally, what would get him to talk? Obviously setting the Elite free wasn't an option. Not such a highly-placed (presumably) prisoner. Not to mention even trying to do so would invite issues with the more extreme members of the strike team, who would sooner shoot the Elite and his men, even with a promise of amnesty.

Something that Dare couldn't give out, and wasn't really inclined to do anyway.

"Then what will?" she asked, hoping the Elite would trap himself by giving away his hand...so to speak.

The Elite was smarter than that however, "I will repeat. I do not see any reason to tell you something human."

"And nothing will make you?"

"No."

Letting out another sigh, Dare turned back to the Chief, "Do what you need to."

The Spartan nodded imperceptibly, and moved towards the cell. The Elite calmly observed this, not a single sign of fear on his alien face. A human would be begging for mercy, not so for the Covenant warrior. Say what you will about the Covenant, their military leadership was the closest thing to fearless that any human had ever encountered. Not that, as it turned out, the warrior had to worry about torture in the end.

For as the Chief was about to walk into the cell, Cortana's blue avatar appeared on a device sitting next to it. The AI had crossed her arms, a thoughtful look on her face. Considering she was also controlling the Penance, that was a feat in-of-itself. The sudden appearance of Cortana caused Dare to raise a hand and stop John from entering the cell, as the AI turned to the ONI officer.

At a gesture from Cortana, Dare pulled on her helmet so that they could have a conversation without the Elite overhearing them.

"Before you send in the Spartans, I have another idea," the AI began, "I've been working on the communications systems, and I should be able to contact other systems now."

Dare frowned under her helmet, "That helps how? Command would just recall us, or order me to send in the Chief."

Cortana snorted, "Such linear thinking. What I'm suggesting is contacting our wayward dimension-jumping friend...last I heard, the Jaffa, Teal'c, is with a Forerunner Monitor. All our intel says the Covenant worship the Forerunner...soooo..."

"So, we can try and use the Monitor to get the Elite to talk?"

"Exactly!"

"But how do we contact him? Do you know where Teal'c is?"

Cortana's avatar shifted slightly, "I don't. I have the codes to contact him, but I don't know exactly where he is."

Dare let out a sigh, "Well, do it. I would prefer to get information willingly so we don't get ambushed or something."

The AI nodded, and vanished as she set about contacting Teal'c and Grieving Light. Shaking her head slightly, Dare looked at the Elite. The warrior hadn't moved so much as an inch during the communication, still staring silently out at his captors. The same went for the Spartans, who also hadn't moved since Dare had told the Chief to wait. It was quite the staring contest really.

A contest that only ended when Cortana reappeared. Except, this time she was not alone. Two other holograms, very realistic ones at that, joined her in the room. Life-size holograms to be precise...Teal'c and Grieving Light. The Elite showed no reaction to the Jaffa, but there was a noticeable reaction to the Monitor. A tensing of his muscles, and what was probably a somewhat shocked look on his face.

"Do you require my aid?" Teal'c asked first, before he noticed the prisoner, "You have captured an Elite?"

"We need Light actually," Dare replied, "as you can see, the Elite won't talk to us."

The Jaffa nodded, as Light 'floated' past him, towards the cell. The Monitor looked curious, as this was probably the first time she had seen an Elite 'in person' before.

"An Oracle..." the Elite definitely had some level of shock in his voice. Not surprising really, considering the Covenant worshiped the Forerunner...and one of their Monitors was quite clearly working with humans.

"Fascinating...I have never met a Sangheili before," Light mused, "your armor appears more ceremonial than functional. Are you a Commander?"

The Elite shook himself, "Oracle, why are you working with humans?"

Light looked confused, as she turned her 'eye' between the UNSC personnel and the Elite. A quick 'blink' of the pink light announced her remembering what had been explained back on Installation 02. The fact that the Covenant considered humanity an affront to their 'gods'...her creators. There was a reason why the Elite had called her an 'Oracle' after all. And it explained why she and Teal'c had been contacted.

If anyone could get a Covenant warrior to talk, it was her.

"Why would I not work with them?" the Monitor asked back, "After all, they are the Reclaimers...heir to everything Forerunner."

Silence greeted that statement, before the Elite shook his head, "They cannot be. The Prophets..."

"Lied," Light said simply, "I understand this is hard to believe, but you have been lied to. I don't know why your leaders consider the humans as vermin, but they are far from that."

The Elite stayed silent, seemingly deep in thought. If Dare had to guess, it was likely to be about the slaughter currently taking place outside the Halo. If this civil war had anything to do with the war...well, it would make sense for the Elite to be deep in thought, especially with what the Monitor had said. After all, if the Prophets had, say, betrayed the Elites...

Needless to say, that would be food for thought. Toss in the fact that your entire religion was based on a lie, and it didn't take much to believe the Elite was going through some serious internal struggles. Struggles that the warrior was clearly going through, if the slight movements in his body were any indication. Tensing, growling...for someone who had been so quiet and calm, it was a noticeable difference.

But it still wasn't until he turned to Dare fully, that the Elite broke through whatever was plaguing his thoughts.

"I am the Arbiter of the Covenant, and I shall aid you in whatever way I can. I believe the Oracle...the Prophets have betrayed my people, and stained our honor. For that, they must die."

---

2030 Hours, November 17th, 2552 (Military Calendar)/

Installation 05

---

Sometime later, two ships exited hyperspace in the same area. The Odyssey and In Amber Clad, both ships slowing down and cloaking. The former with its more advanced cloak, the latter with a retrofitted Goa'uld style device. The reason for cloaking, of course, was the still-raging battle between the different Covenant factions. Though, now, the factions had coalesced somewhat as the two ships scanned the area.

Instead of a wild furball as Covenant forces fired on anything in sight, there were two distinct factions. The larger faction centered around High Charity, and a smaller group on the Solemn Penance...identifiable by the UNSC IFF it had started transmitting the moment the two small ships had come out of hyperspace. It was towards that ship that the smaller vessels floated.

"Am I the only one wondering what the hell is going on here?" Cam asked aloud, as a Covenant Supercarrier was blown into three pieces by smaller Assault Carriers.

"No," Daniel replied.

"Good. Any luck contacting the strike team?"

"We're opening a link now," Sam replied, as the viewscreens changed to show the bridge of the captured Carrier.

Standing on the bridge, were Dare and the Chief...and the Arbiter. Many eyebrows came up at the sight of an Elite standing on the bridge next to UNSC soldiers. Considering the Covenant's desire to totally obliterate humanity...it made no sense for that Elite to just be standing there doing...nothing. If he were a prisoner, that would be one thing...but he didn't seem to be one.

Not to mention the little fact that the captured ship was sitting in the middle of a Covenant fleet and not being shot at.

"I shouldn't be surprised they sent you," Dare sounded slightly amused, "welcome to Delta Halo."

"I really didn't want to see another one of these things," Cam muttered, "why do you have an Elite on your bridge?"

Dare turned to look at the Elite, "Say hello to our new friend the Arbiter. The Covenant have split apart...the Elites are on our side now, at least the ones here."

SG-1 shared a look at that. That was eerily similar to the Jaffa rebellion. Was the Arbiter the Covenant's Teal'c? Not that they would complain if that was the case, of course. Despite the recurring issues with more nationalistic Jaffa, they were SG-1's Earth's best allies. If the Elites could be the same for UNSC Earth, that would be a good thing. It would just be a matter of making sure that the hatred, on both sides, didn't overcome such an agreement.

Right now though, it was more important in the fact that there was a decently large Covenant fleet on their side. A fleet that was still in battle with the even larger group of warships surrounding the giant mushroom that was High Charity.

"And I'm guessing the big mushroom is the Prophet's?" Cam asked.

"Yes, that is our Holy City," the Arbiter answered, "High Charity. Even now, the Prophet's are attempting to cleanse it of any they view as heretics. My people, the Unggoy, the Lekgolo, and any of the other races who support our cause."

"Genocide," Daniel said, "just like the humans."

The distaste in his voice was what most were feeling at that moment. Even those who hated the Covenant, since they could see it was the Prophets who had been pushing for everything. Especially if they were willing to slaughter their own erstwhile allies like that...presumably civilians included, considering High Charity being a 'Holy City'.

"Yes," the Arbiter replied, "Exactly like that. Something that has stained my honor for the rest of my life. We shall aid you in whatever way we are able...but first, you must help save my people."

"You do see how big that thing is, right?"

"I am aware. Help us destroy the Loyalist Fleet, and my warriors can handle the rest."

"We'll do what we can," Cam said.

Despite the risks in attacking that large of a Covenant fleet...the benefits were far larger. Obviously the Covenant knew where Earth was, and if the 'Loyalist' faction won this little civil war, they would come straight for it. And there was no guarantee the fleet and ODPs could hold against a large enough attack. Especially now that the Covenant would be ready for the new technology, instead of shocked as they were at Reach.

And despite the losses they had to have suffered, this fleet was plenty large enough. Far, far, larger than the force that had tried to burn Reach. A force that itself was the largest Covenant fleet seen to that point in time.

"Drop the cloak, and join up with the Elites."

"What about the Amber Clad?" Miranda Keyes asked.

Sam, standing near the comm arrays, answered that question, "Stay cloaked...see if you can drop some Hornets by the Fleet."

Hornets, in this case, meaning the nuclear mines. Miranda nodded, and her face vanished from the viewscreen as the Odyssey decloaked and flared its engines. The small battlecruiser joined up with the much larger Elite warships, floating alongside the Solemn Penance, which had started serving as the Arbiter's new flagship, at least for this engagement. The joint forces, with the In Amber Clad moving slowly from a different direction, began pushing against the Loyalist forces guarding High Charity.

But as the ships moved into formation and started to charge their plasma lines for a massive broadside...ships began opening slipspace portals. Loyalist vessels began vanishing into the portals at an alarming rate, with only a small rearguard covering the retreating forces. What was most alarming...was High Charity. The structure opened a truly gigantic portal, vanishing through it. The rearguard didn't last long after that, as the Elite forces mopped them up.

"Okay, why did they just leave like that?" Cam asked.

"That didn't look like a retreat," Daniel replied slowly, "it looked more like they were going somewhere..."

"Sam?"

The blonde genius had already bent over her console, and started scanning the slipspace portals. Her face grew progressively paler the more she scanned, until she turned and looked directly at the rest of the crew, "Earth. They are going for Earth."


-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Next three chapters will be the Battle of Earth. After that, there is the one epilogue chapter and this story will be complete. And of course the sequel comes after that.

[InsaneTD]

Getting exciting. Can't wait to read the battle for earth.

[Skywalker_T-65]

1200 Hours, November 30th, 2552 (Military Calendar)/

Earth

---

As cleanup continued on the surface of Earth, the UNSC Home Fleet floated at the ready. They had received a message days ago...a message from a new Halo. As if that wasn't bad enough, the message's contents had been far worse. A Covenant fleet, larger than any other, heading right for Earth. SG-1 was even now bringing the Arcadia Strike Force back to Earth, while Miranda Keyes gathered any other ships that could be spared from their own colonies. Already, Sigma Octanus had been stripped of defenders, the veterans of that battle gathered around the UNSC Iroquois next to Cairo Station.

Two supercarriers...two dozen cruisers, from the massive Valiant to the small, hastily retrofitted Halcyon-I's...and hundreds of smaller ships. All were gathered, together with the three hundred ODPs.

As Lord Hood looked out at this massive gathering of firepower from his post on Cairo Station, he wore a grim frown on his face. While it was true that this was quite possibly the mightiest gathering of human military might in history...it still probably wasn't enough. The report from SG-1 said that much. Even as hundreds of UNSC ships floated around Earth, even more Covenant warships approached. And not all of the human ships were fully upgraded either.

This was going to be humanities last stand. If Earth fell, so too did the UNSC...no matter how many colonies survived. Too many ships, too many personnel, were at stake here.

"Sir," an aide approached the old Admiral.

"What is it?" Hood asked, turning away from the window.

"Io Station just went dark. They reported a Slipspace rupture before communications ceased."

The Commander-in-Chief of the UNSC sighed heavily, "Then they've arrived."

Turning away from the pale woman, Hood walked back over to the window. A console sat nearby, one set up specifically for his use...to contact the Fleet gathered in orbit, along with the smaller force covering Mars. Activating the communications system, Hood looked out at the fleet. His tight face was broadcast to every single UNSC warship, and every ground based headquarters on Earth and Mars.

Hood turned his face like he was scanning the faces of everyone watching the broadcast, before facing fully forwards.

"The Covenant has arrived," the old admiral bluntly spoke, "Io has gone dark, so it is only a matter of time before they arrive here. I don't need to tell you how important it is that we hold the line here. Earth is our last stand. You all have your orders, I expect everyone to give it their all."

Pushing more buttons on the console, Hood changed the communications to where he was only in contact with the leaders of the various segments of the Home Fleet. The Second Fleet, holding formation over Mars. The Seventh spread in close formation with the S-MACs to prevent the Covenant from jumping in close like they had attempted at Reach, and the Sixteenth, the largest of them all, holding at the 'frontline'.

The last orders had barely left Hood's mouth when the first Covenant forces arrived.

A swarm of portals opened in orbit of Earth, spitting out hundreds of alien warships. Even the veterans of Reach felt their eyes widen at the sight. At least twice as large as the force that had been beaten back there...and ships were still coming. Carriers, destroyers, frigates, cruisers, corvettes, every type of Covenant ship ever encountered.

"All ships engage at will," Hood ordered, as he watched the Covenant ships continue to enter realspace.

For all the shock at the sight of so many enemy warships, the Human forces were the elite of their military. And they operated exactly as expected of them...MAC shells flew from ships and platforms alike, while blue and gold beams joined the barrage. The vanguard of the Covenant fleet was blown to pieces...but the second line merely pushed those ruined vessels aside, and charged their plasma lines.

A volley of hundreds of plasma torpedoes lashed out into space, burning towards the UNSC fleet. And behind that, a group of Super-Cruisers targeted the ODPs in range. A dozen white beams flashed out...and a dozen platforms died, their shields unable to take an Energy Projector beam. The torpedoes impacted next. While the ships with shields could take a hit or two from Covenant plasma...a dozen hits per ship was too much, even for the mighty Trafalgar, the supercarrier splitting in two after being blasted by two Assault Carriers.

In the first barrage of the battle, both sides lost nearly a hundred ships. Losses the Covenant could afford...but the UNSC could ill-afford.

---

USNC Valiant

---

Aboard the bridge of the most powerful UNSC warship in Earth orbit, Fleet Admiral Harper clenched his fists. Intellectually, he was well aware that the losses were light compared to what they could have been, with that many Covenant warships firing at once. It still burned to see so many ships and, more importantly, so many ODPs burning. Earth's 300 platforms was a misnomer...that was 300 platforms scattered around the entire planet. If the Covenant could punch a large enough hole in one sector, it wouldn't matter that the other platforms existed, since the damn aliens could just hit them from below before any could be moved to close the gap.

And they had just lost a dozen of them. Warships moved to cover the gap, but there was still a large portion of Earth without its defense net, and the Covenant were moving to ruthlessly exploit that gap. There was no playing with the human defenders this time...the enemy was determined to end the UNSC, once and for all.

"Admiral, the Second Battlegroup is requesting assistance!" one of the crew called out.

"Stalingrad is on fire! Admiral Patterson is falling back!" another man shouted.

"Iroquois is moving up to cover Stalingrad!"

And so it went...the flagship of the Home Fleet was besieged by message after message as the UNSC and Covenant battered away at each other. Harper stood on his bridge, anger filling his body. As a crippled frigate drifted past the Valiant, the Admiral made up his mind.

"Move us forward!" his commanding voice barked out, silencing the cacophony of voices.

When the cruiser didn't immediately start moving, Harper strode forward and stood next to his helmsman. The woman seemed to be shocked by the order, and looked at the Admiral with wide eyes. Harper merely stared down on her, before turning around and looking at his crew. The men and women stared at their commander, who merely stared right back.

"Did I not make myself clear?" Harper asked, "We are taking the fight to the Covenant."

The crew's faces showed real fear at that. For all that the Valiant was the strongest UNSC warship, they knew that going against the Covenant directly was...if not suicidal, very likely to cripple even the mighty warship. Harper knew that as well as they did, but something had to be done. Just fighting a slugging match with the Covenant would end with the UNSC fleet destroyed by sheer numbers. Aggressive tactics were needed to win this fight...

And by God, Admiral Carl Harper would give the Covenant a beating they would never forget.

"Sir yes sir!" the crew chorused, setting to their jobs with a grim determination lining their faces.

The Valiant's block of powerful engines flared to life, pushing the massive warship past the debris of wrecked UNSC ships and ODPs. Flanking it on either side, golden shields flaring from the debris, was a battlegroup of sixty assorted frigates and destroyers, with the Marathon class Say My Name holding formation 'above' the Valiant. All of these ships angled towards the gathering of Covenant supercruisers. The modified warships were the bane of the Home Fleet...unlike the more common CAS Assault Carriers, the supercruisers didn't need to angle their hulls to fire their energy projectors...a fact driven home as Malta Station went up in a massive fireball.

Harper glared at that sight, and barked out new orders. The Valiant turned its ponderous bulk, and weapons ports opened along its flanks, as the three MACs mounted in the Heavy Cruiser's bow spun up. One of the Covenant warships turned too, the energy projectors on its bow gathering light for another volley.

"Sir?" the helmsman asked, her face going progressively paler as the Covenant weapons grew brighter.

"What are you doing Admiral?" a male voice asked, as the image of a Roman Centurion appeared on the holopad.

"Trust me on this Loginus," Harper replied, the AI looking distinctly bemused, "and hold course Lieutenant!"

The Valiant's powerful thrusters continued to push it towards the Covenant warships, the escorting battlegroup spreading out to make a smaller target for the other Covenant ships still battering away at the UNSC defenses. The one supercruiser that aimed at the Valiant battlegroup continued to grow larger in the viewport. The five energy projectors were growing brighter and brighter as they charged...and yet Harper refused to change his path.

Loginus watched and waited, his 'hands' in the systems of the mighty cruiser...ready to react faster than any human could do. Something that was a good thing, as Harper finally barked out a single order as the supercruiser's weapons reached the apex of their light.

"Fire starboard thrusters!"

The AI didn't even take a millisecond to process the order, before the massive warship was thrown to the side, as racks upon racks of emergency rocket thrusters physically pushed it off its original trajectory. White hot beams of energy passed through the position the Valiant had previously occupied, one cleaving through its shield and cutting a long gash through the old warships hull. The other beams continued on into space, inadvertently hitting an Assault Carrier, splitting the ship into pieces before its reactor detonated.

The Valiant, wounded by the beam, continued to approach the Covenant formation however, along with its large escort formation. Alarms rang through the bridge, as damage control tried to figure out how bad the hit was. Harper himself had a small gash on his head, where he had been thrown off his feet by the sudden jerking of his flagship. He didn't even seem to notice however, as a grim smile adorned his young (for his rank) face.

"Plasma cannons five through eleven are damaged," one of the crew called out, "emergency thrusters are gone, along with the starboard armor belt."

"Are the MACs still operational?" Harper asked calmly.

"Yes sir."

The grim smile remained on the Admiral's face, as he looked at the Covenant ship attempting to move behind its comrades, two of which were turning away from the Home Fleet, and towards the Valiant Battlegroup. Loginus' avatar bore a disapproving look, though one end of his aged face did twitch up slightly.

"That was quite possibly the dumbest move I have ever seen Admiral," the Centurion stated calmly, "weapons are ready, including the mines you have placed to be beamed. Say My Name reports they are ready to beam the weaponry on a moment's notice."

Harper nodded, "Fire everything we have at those bastards. And have the Say My Name beam the nukes inside their shields...give the bastards a nasty surprise."

Loginus gave a Roman salute, and his avatar winked out as the Valiant shook from the force of its three MAC cannons shooting out three shells. The Autumn modifications had been given to the few remaining Super Heavies, and that included Harper's command. Each of the cannons fired at a different target...the nine massive tungsten-carbide shells impacting on three of the supercruisers. Each of the vessels targeted by the Valiant lost their shields...providing the perfect opening for the Say My Name to beam the nuclear mines onto their hulls. White flashes of light announced the death of three of the Covenant's five supercruisers.

The rest of the battlegroup, from the lowly frigates to the Say My Name fired their own MACs at the remaining two supercruisers, along with a veritable swarm of golden plasma. The Staff Cannons blew through the, relatively, light hull armor of the supercruisers, detonating the last of the ships in a massive fireball.

The destruction of their most powerful warships sent a ripple through the Covenant lines, as vessels turned their bulk towards the Valiant group.

"Sir...perhaps now would be a good time to try the hyperdrive?" the XO spoke up.

Harper nodded, "Yes, yes it is. Helm, get us on the other side of that fleet. Comms, get a couple of those new Mark II Halcyons with us if possible."

The crew took to their tasks with a small spring in their steps. While the Valiant was wounded, they had managed to take down five of the most powerful Covenant ships outside their massive supercarriers. It was a small blow to the massive Covenant armada...but it was a blow nonetheless. And as the first wave of vengeful Covenant plasma approached Harper's battlegroup, hyperspace windows opened in front of the large formation. The ships lurched forward, vanishing into the portals.

---

When the battlegroup emerged a few seconds later, they were joined by a pair of newbuilt Halcyon-class cruisers, one of which had a small fire blazing on its flank. Nonetheless, both cruisers were battle-ready, and formed up with the Valiant. With three cruisers in addition to the swarm of smaller vessels, the group forced the Covenant armada to split their attention between two flanks. While the majority of the fleet continued to bombard the defenders of Earth, a not-insignificant number of vessels charged headlong at the Valiant battlegroup.

Their Brute captains were out for blood after the destruction of the rare supercruisers, and they weren't going to be denied their prize by any fancy tricks this time. A dozen CCS-class cruisers, and two CAS-class Assault Carriers lead the charge, with an equal number of smaller ships to the UNSC numbers. If this were a pre-Sigma Octanus battle, the UNSC forces would be screwed.

Luckily for humanity, it was not.

"Starboard shields are limited to 60 percent," Loginus reported, "don't expose that flank."

"MAC charge?" Harper asked.

"Thirty percent and rising. Luckily the capacitors were not damaged."

The Admiral nodded, "Have the Berlin and Tokyo move forward."

The two smaller cruisers moved ahead, to take the Valiant's place at the front of the line, while the larger warship recharged its weapons. Because of this, they were the first to be hit by the vengeful Covenant forces. The already damaged Berlin began to drift to the side, the fire on its hull growing larger. But both of the vessels still had power for their weapons, and six MAC shells flashed out, with Staff Cannon fire joining the heavy physical blows.

Two of the CCS-cruisers were shattered, while several corvettes were obliterated by concentrated Staff Fire. In return, the first of the Assault Carriers fired an energy projector beam, bisecting the Berlin, and knocking out the Tokyo's shield. Harper frowned at that, as the Say My Name moved to take the Berlin's place, with the various escort vessels covering their approach. Two Covenant cruisers and at least six corvettes for one cruiser would normally have been a great exchange rate...but right now, every single vessel was needed to counter the overwhelming Covenant numbers.

"Loginus, prep the Shivas for launch. Helm, plot another hyperspace jump above this battlegroup...make certain we are oriented to where we can use the MACs," the Admiral ordered, as a plan began to form in his head.

"Shiva's prepped for suicidal plan number two," the AI replied, gaining a glare from Harper as the Valiant jumped into hyperspace a second time.

Not even a second later, the ship dropped back into realspace over the Covenant formation. In a similar move to what the Odyssey had performed at Sigma Octanus, the massive cruiser began to fire every weapon it had at the Brutes, who scattered in an attempt to mitigate the damage. The MAC fire, instead of impacting on the CCS cruisers, instead hit one of the Assault Carriers. While the six-kilometer long vessel dwarfed even the mighty Valiant, its shields were unable to take the impact of nine MAC shells hitting simultaneously.

The shells punched clean through one end of the ship to the other, shattering armor and blowing apart plasma lines. Purple fire belched from the impact sights, providing an easy target for the secondary volley of Archer missiles and Staff Cannons. As the crippled ship drifted powerless, the Valiant fired its forward thrusters to arrest its momentum, and began to turn to show its undamaged port side to the Covenant warships that had started to further split, to focus on the Super-Heavy Cruiser and the remaining members of the battle group.

"One carrier down, one to go," the Admiral stated, a grimly satisfied look on his face.

A look that slowly slid off his face, as a truly enormous slipspace portal opened up...engulfing the Covenant ships, and the drifting Tokyo alike. The rest of the battlegroup barely avoided the portal, and the Valiant was only spared due to quick reactions on Loginus' part. And out of this portal came the one sight that had given the planners of this defense nightmares ever since the report from the Odyssey had come in...High Charity had come to play.

And it was not going to take any mercy, as weapons mounted on the station lashed out, vaporizing the Valiant and its battlegroup...

---

Cairo Station

---

As Admiral Harper died, Lord Hood watched on. His face was bandaged after Cairo took several hits early in the battle, but the old Admiral remained at his post even as the station was evacuated, its Marine detachment heading to the surface to provide support where Covenant ships had broken through the UNSC lines. And still, Hood watched. He watched as High Charity took shots from several ODPs, the massive station's shields holding through the first barrage.

Even when the shields failed after the second barrage, the massive size of the station allowed it to absorb the blows. Nor did it just take the blows and sit there...High Charity bristled with weaponry, energy projectors and massive torpedo launchers lancing out, blowing away ODPs and warships alike. The previously stalemated battle had tilted towards the Covenant, and there wasn't a damn thing that Hood could do about it.

"Lord Hood, we need to evacuate now," his aide said, as Athens Station was blown into a million pieces.

"Earth is our last stand," the Admiral repeated his words from earlier, "and we are losing."

Turning away from the window, the young woman saw her superiors face for the first time. Hood was not a young man, but he seemed to have aged even in the short span of this battle. As another hit impacted on Cairo's overtaxed shield grid, the golden light just brought the lines on the Admiral's face into stark relief.

"Everything is in SG-1 and Commander Keyes' hands now," Hood continued, "we have to hope they can gather enough reinforcements."

With that said, Hood keyed a code into the console beside him, rings shooting up around the Admiral and his aide...transporting them to the UNSC Iroquois...right as Cairo Station was blown apart by another barrage from High Charity.

Humanity was losing, and it was only a matter of time until the Covenant broke through the remaining lines...

[Skywalker_T-65]

1900 Hours, November 30th, 2552 (Military Calendar)/

USS Odyssey

---

"How long can they hold out?" Daniel asked aloud, as the tunnel of Hyperspace surrounded the Odyssey.

Cam looked up at the question, before sighing, "It'll have to be long enough. We've got everything we can afford headin back but..."

He didn't need to finish that sentence. Earth was the most heavily defended planet in the UNSC. But the fleet that had left that Halo was larger than anything the UNSC had fought before. And no level of defenses could hold out forever against superior numbers...morale, ammunition...either could run out, or the enemy could just run over the defenses in a wave of attacks.

And that was why they needed to get back to Earth with reinforcements, as soon as possible. The Odyssey was approaching with every hyperdrive equipped ship they could gather, while the Elites were not far behind with the slipspace-drive ships. All together they amounted to maybe a couple hundred warships, as most of the Elites had left to garrison their own worlds, or else guard Delta Halo.

If those ships would be enough...that was the question at hand.

"We're about to leave hyperspace," Sam reported.

"And now the fun begins..." Cam muttered, as the blue tunnel vanished...to be replaced by a horrifying sight.

Debris floated everywhere in sight...shattered hulks of UNSC warships. Covenant warships lay amongst the wreckage, and even in greater numbers. But unlike the UNSC counterparts, these vessels made up a smaller fraction of the combined Covenant fleet. A fleet that was even now battering away at what remained of the Home Fleet and the ODPs.

And a sad remnant that was. What had once been the largest UNSC fleet had been reduced to a relative handful of ships, launching hit and run attacks on the Covenant warships surrounding Earth. The remaining ODPs shattered dozens of alien warships in each barrage…but the Covenant still pushed forward.

"The mushroom is back."

And 'the mushroom' that was High Charity was the main cause of the Covenant success. While the massive structure was cracked and coated in holes from ODP rounds and nukes, it was still firing at anything in sight.

"All vessels assume Formation Gamma and relieve the Home Fleet!" Admiral Stanforth ordered from the massive Ascendant Justice, "Odyssey see what you can do about High Charity!"

"Roger that," Sam answered from her station.

As the UNSC ships moved forward against the rearguard of the Covenant fleet, the crew of the Odyssey looked at their dimension jumping commanders. If ever there was a time for some SG-1 ingenuity, now was that time. And they already had ideas floating around.

Or at least Sam did. She was looking at High Charity, her eyes roaming over the structure for any apparent weakpoints. The powerful Asgard scanners were doing much the same, both her eyes and the advanced devices looking for a weakness. And at first, one would think there just plain wasn't one.

No open hangars, bristling with weapons, the Colonel listed off, if you can't break it from the outside though…

"What are you thinking Sam?" Daniel asked.

"Hyperdrive," the scientist answered, pushing buttons on her console, "jump inside High Charity, and destroy it from the inside."

"…"

Even Cameron Mitchell was a bit, understandably, leery of that idea. They didn't know what was inside the thing after all.

"Sam, what if we crash into something?" Daniel brought up.

The blonde turned her head slightly, "We won't. Scans indicate that there are several hollow areas more than large enough to fit us. The Covenant doesn't do anything small."

Cam's eyebrow went up, "Well, the thing is the size of a small moon y'know. So what's the plan once we're inside? Beam Noble down to cause some havoc?"

While an interesting idea that would have just been a waste of time. Noble had better uses than rampaging around High Charity when they didn't even know where the vulnerable bits, like power generators, were. So Sam merely shook her head, and continued to calculate a proper hyperspace vector as the frontline of the reinforcement fleet started to engage the Covenant rearguard.

"No, I have a better idea."

"What?"

"Nukes. Lots of nukes."

Daniel felt a bit of sweat drop down his face, "Is this like blowing up the sun?"

Sam sighed, as she saw the eyes of every one of the UNSC crew on her now. That thing was like a freakin sword over her head…

"Well, I say we do it," Cam broke in.

The other Colonel nodded, and took the place of the UNSC helmsman. For something this tight, it was far better to have the most experienced person aboard the vessel in command. They didn't want the Odyssey splattering against High Charity's internal walls by any means.

And as the first of several plasma torpedoes began to approach the dimension-jumping warship, the plan was put into action. Not even a few minutes after leaving one, another hyperspace window flashed into existence in front of the Odyssey, as the battlecruiser lurched forward. The warship vanished from sight, as the Brute commanders of the Covenant fleet scrambled to figure out where it would end up.

Naturally, none of them could anticipate the Odyssey exiting hyperspace not even a second later, smack dab in the middle of High Charity. An area that resembled nothing less than a warzone, as running gun battles continued between rebels and loyalists. But even the flaming buildings, and crashed transports, did not get full attention. Because, after all…the biggest sight was the triangular object sitting at the center of the massive structure.

An intact Forerunner Keyship.

---

High Charity, 9th Age of Reclamation

---

As the Odyssey entered High Charity, a Phantom dropship diverted from its original course to avoid the small warship. Aboard the Phantom, were two figures central to the New Covenant. Tartarus, Chieftain of the Jiralhanae and de-facto leader of the Covenant Military…and Truth, singular Hierarch of the Covenant. Mercy was nowhere to be found; having perished in an attack by Sangheili forces lead by Sesa 'Refumee.

While Truth should have shown some emotion at the death of his oldest ally, he did not. For now, with Mercy and Regret both out of the picture, he was the sole leader of the Covenant. And even if he had to leave High Charity to its fate…it did not matter.

Fools…they believe we are here to end the humans. Even Tartarus suspects nothing… Truth thought, casting a disparaging look at the massive Jiralhanae who, even now, was barking out orders to dodge fire from the infernal human warship scything fighters from the sky.

The reason they were at Earth had nothing to do with the vermin. The fact that the world was their homeworld was a bonus, but not the true reason the Prophet had brought his fleet here. The true reason lay where Regret had attempted a landing…the massive structure that the vermin had so helpfully excavated for him.

And it was why his Phantom was landing in the docking bay of the Dreadnought.

"Come Hierarch," Tartarus said, his rough voice dragging Truth from his musings, "we must launch as soon as possible."

The Prophet merely gave the Jiralhanae a look, "Come now Tartarus, you don't believe a vermin warship can harm us inside the most holy of places?"

"I did not believe they could penetrate High Charity," the Chieftain replied, "and yet they have. We must ensure your safety."

"Very well."

Truth waited at the back of a line of Jiralhanae and loyal Kig-Yar, his throne's shield powered up in the event that rebels had taken up shelter in the Dreadnought. As it turned out, they had. The moment Tartarus stepped out at the front of his troops, a beam rifle shot ricocheted off his shield. The Jiralhanae roared in indignation, and dodged to the side as more plasma fire began to rain down from the higher levels of the hangar.

The Prophet remained in the Phantom, as the craft took back to the air, to allow its side gunners shots at the Sangheili forces. The gunners blasted away, plasma burning Sangheili shields, but leaving no marks on the tough Forerunner alloys that made up the ship. Something the rebels took advantage of, ducking beneath the tough metal and only showing themselves to take shots at the Jiralhanae gunners.

Far below the raging gunfight, Tartarus lead his own troops forward. No matter the amount of fire directed at his shields, nothing pierced the tough barrier. Not for lack of trying either, as a pair of silver-armored Sangheili Councilors dropped from the higher level, energy swords ignited. The traitors bared their mandibles, as lower ranked Sangheili and Unggoy forces engaged Tartarus' escort.

"So, you want a fight?" the Chieftain asked, pulling the Fist of Rukt off his back.

"On our honor, we will kill you…traitor!" the lead Councilor shouted back, charging forward with his sword flashing at the Jiralhanae's head.

Tartarus let the blow hit him…and promptly slide off his shield. Baring his teeth in a feral smile, the Chieftain casually swung his massive hammer around, the blow smashing the Sangheili's chest in as the Councilor flew away.

A deep laugh came from the Jiralhanae's throat at the sight, "Fool. I am not the traitor. You are, for breaking our Holy Covenant!"

The second Councilor roared, rage filling the sound. But after what happened to his counterpart, he was far more cautious. The white-armored warrior warily circled Tartarus, not moving within range of the Fist of Rukt. The Chieftain appeared highly amused by this, as he chuckled at the sight of an 'honorable warrior' acting like a coward.

Unsurprisingly, this brought even more anger to the Sangheili. The Councilor growled and attempted to hit the Chieftain. Once more the blade bounced off the shield, but unlike his counterpart this Elite was able to jump back and avoid the return blow from Tartarus. And it wasn't a moment too soon either, as a pair of beam rifle shots hit the massive Jiralhanae. Even his shield overloaded from that impact, bringing the equivalent of a grin to the Councilors face.

"It appears your shield is not indestructible, traitor."

Tartarus growled, and swung at the Sangheili. The nimble warrior avoided the blow, and his blade sliced into the Chieftains arm. The Jiralhanae leader roared, and lashed his other fist out. The blow shattered the Sangheili's shield, and forced the smaller warrior back.

"Maybe so, but neither is yours."

Before the Sangheili could react, the Fist of Rukt came down once more. Tartarus pulled his hammer out of the rebel's chest, and turned to see the rest of his forces mopping up the rebels. All that remained were the snipers…who were killed by a barrage from a Plasma Launcher.

Silence once more filled the hangar, as the Phantom landed and Truth emerged. The Prophet looked disdainfully upon the corpses of both rebels and loyalists. He spat on the Councilor at Tartarus' feet, a glare on the Hierarch's aged face.

"Even here, in the most Holy of places, the infection spreads," he spoke, the Prophet's harsh voice echoing in the hangar, "Let this be a lesson! No matter what we do, traitors and vermin will continue to plague our Holy Covenant until they are all eliminated!"

Roars answered Truth, as the Prophet floated next to Tartarus. The Chieftain nodded his head slightly, as a minor Jiralhanae applied a bandage to his sword wound. Truth nodded back, and as soon as the bandage was applied began moving to the center of the Dreadnought.

As they walked, the mighty warship began to shake heavily. Truth turned to the Jiralhanae next to him, a questioning eyebrow raised.

Tartarus didn't need to ask, as he barked out orders for a report from the forces surrounding the Dreadnought. Once he had his answer, the Chieftain turned to his Hierarch, a fierce glare on his face.

"The humans are using nuclear weapons. They are transporting them with an unknown technology, and to vital areas. High Charity will collapse within minutes if they continue."

Truth let out a dramatic sigh, "Very well. I knew this would happen when I brought High Charity into this battle. No matter, anything can, and will, be sacrificed to ensure the Great Journey. Let the garrison know that they are ensured a place with the Forerunner for their heroic sacrifice!"

The soldiers around Truth continued to secure the Dreadnought, while the Prophet himself ignored the continued shaking. The Dreadnought was untouchable…no technology could harm something of the Forerunners. So he believed anyway, as the ship started to shake from direct hits.

And yet, he still ignored the hits. Truth ignored everything, except for the ball floating at the heart of the Dreadnought. Three blue 'eyes' stared out at the Hierarch, every bit as nonplussed by the bombardment as he was. As Tartarus set about preparing the Dreadnought to launch, the Prophet floated up to the orb.

"For all the trouble you have caused me Oracle, you have failed," the old San 'Shyuum said, lowly enough that only the orb heard him, "the Reclaimers will perish, and I shall have the Ark."

The blue eyes turned slightly, to fully look at Truth, "You underestimate the Reclaimers. You are but children, and you cannot control what you cannot comprehend. The Ark will not answer to you."

Truth glared at the orb, "Even now you attempt to delude me."

"I do not. I merely speak the truth. My repentance may be impossible, but I do not lie."

Turning away in disgust, Truth floated over to Tartarus. The Jiralhanae cast looks at the floating orb, before turning to his Hierarch. The report he had was not going to please the Prophet, but it was needed nonetheless. Lying to a Hierarch was a cause for death, after all.

"We are separating from High Charity now Hierarch," the Chieftain reported, "shields are holding and weapons are charging."

Truth nodded, a smile crossing his face, "Very well. The moment we are clear of High Charity…destroy that annoying insect."

A feral grin once more crossed the Jiralhanae's face, "As you command Hierarch."

---

USS Odyssey

---

"Did that thing just take Asgard weapons?" Cam deadpanned, as the Keyship exited out of the collapsing High Charity.

Sam nodded, "Yes, it did."

"Good, I thought I was imagining things. Any idea how much firepower that thing will take to bring down?"

"No."

A sigh came from the Colonel in command of the small warship, as the Odyssey opened another hyperspace window as the last of its nukes detonated. When the ship popped back into realspace a second later, High Charity began collapsing behind it. Debris flew everywhere; hitting the escorting Covenant warships…a particularly large chunk sliced a Supercarrier in two. But, leaving this rapidly spreading debris field was a single warship.

The Keyship, pristine silver armor shining dully in the sunlight, turned on a heading directly for the Ascendant Justice. The human crewed Assault Carrier ponderously turned its own bulk, golden Staff Cannon and blue Ion Cannon bolts lashing out at the Forerunner warship. A dull orange shield, not too dissimilar to Goa'uld shields save for its hull-hugging design, flashed into existence. The shield, much like it had done with the Odyssey's plasma beams, easily took the barrage from the Justice.

"What the hell is that thing?" Stanforth's voice came over the radio, "That's not any Covenant design I've seen before."

"It's a Keyship, sir," Sam replied, "It's Forerunner."

"Like that one with the Monitor? Damn it…all ships, concentrate fire on the Keyship!"

What few UNSC warships that weren't already engaged with the Covenant fleet, turned their bulk around and began to fire everything from MACs to missiles at the Keyship. And yet, nothing they did so much as made the vessel flinch. The, relatively, thin Keyship flat out dodged most of the unguided MAC shells, and what few that did hit, pancaked on the shield.

With an almost contemptuous air to it, the Forerunner warship turned slightly. A barrage of blue bolts of energy flew out from weapon ports scattered on the warship. Unlike their Goa'uld or Tollan equivalents on human warships…these bolts were devastatingly effective. Any ship that was hit was cored clean through.

Even the Ascendant Justice was unable to hold out. A barrage of the blue fire collapsed its golden shield grid. Wherever the Forerunner weaponry hit the former Covenant ship, it punched clean through. The slate gray armor shattered, and flew away in large chunks.

"No…" Daniel muttered, as thousands of UNSC sailors vanished in a massive fireball when the Justice finally gave out.

"How the hell does that thing have working weapons?" Cam cursed, "and why haven't the Covenant reverse-engineered them?"

Sam was looking at the carnage with wide eyes, but she wasn't the smartest person in the SGC for no reason. She was already scanning the weapons, and what she saw just drove home how powerful Forerunner weapons could truly be.

"Working might be pushing things," she said, a bit of strain visible in her voice as a Halcyon was holed clean through, "those weapons are barely functioning compared to the Ecumene. The Covenant probably couldn't figure out how they worked properly…those are plasma weapons, but…"

If that was barely functioning, it just drove home how far behind both the UNSC and Covenant were to the Forerunner. And the Keyship seemed to have tired of firing on UNSC warships. The triangular warship turned, its massive bulk dwarfing the Odyssey. And as blue fire began to come down upon the equally blue shield of the human warship, the situation began to look worse and worse.

The Asgard shield grid was far more powerful than the Goa'uld equivalent. With the ZPM actually plugged in, the strain was easily handled…provided they didn't stay in one spot for too long.

So, the thrusters at the rear of the small warship fired, and it began to dance around the Forerunner weapons fire. Blue bolts of plasma flashed out from the battlecruiser's bow, impacting on the orange Keyship shield. The bolts were absorbed much like the silver of an Ori barrier, and a particularly savage hit forced the Odyssey to angle away from the Forerunner warship.

Even a naquadah-enhanced Shiva beamed from a wrecked USNC warship only slowed down the much larger Keyship.

"This is really starting to bug me," Cam muttered darkly, all too recent memories of the flight from the Asgard homeworld coming to mind.

"Where are the Elites?" Daniel asked…and as if fate just liked screwing with SG-1, a swarm of slipspace portals opened up.

Out of those portals came two hundred fresh Covenant warships. At the front were two Assault Carriers…the human-controlled Solemn Penance and the Elite Shadow of Intent. Joining with the Hyperdrive equipped reinforcements, these forces began to push hard against the Loyalist forces. With High Charity gone, the 'hammer' of the reinforcements joined with the 'anvil' of what remained of the Home Fleet.

And the Covenant forces were being smashed hard against it. Ships died in waves, as the scattered defenders finally were able to rally. The only exception to that rule was the Keyship that continued to rampage throughout the USNC lines. ODPs, cruisers, frigates, Elite vessels…any that it touched, died. The only exception to the rule was the Odyssey, and despite the obvious strain on the Keyship's shield, not even the Asgard Plasma Beams could punch through.

The thing was just too large…not enough bolts were hitting in the same spot to counter the overall shield strength.

"Any ideas Sam? Cam?" Daniel asked warily.

"Keep shooting it 'till it dies?" Cam suggested.

Sam sighed, "That may be all we can do. I can't get a lock to beam a nuke aboard it, even if we had any left after High Charity."

And so, the Odyssey continued to duel with the Forerunner warship. The occasional Elite or UNSC warship tried to help, but their shields were no match for Forerunner weapons. Only the ZPM-boosted Asgard shields on the BC-304 could take hits from the massively powerful weaponry.

At least, until a new hyperspace portal opened up…the largest one that SG-1 had ever seen in fact. And out of that portal came an amazing sight. Six kilometers of grey Titanium armor, forming the shape of a bulky, yet strangely elegant, warship. Proudly written on the sides of the ship were the words UNSC Infinity.

"Someone call for some help?" Vala's cheerful voice came over the radio…as the Infinity began to fire Goa'uld and Tollan weapons at the Keyship…

---

Two chapters left. Credit where it's due, I have to thank E_F for the 'nuke inside High Charity' idea.

[Eternal_Freedom]

Ha! I was wondering when that idea would appear! It's just a pity they don't have more than one of the NOVAs.

And Infinity too...oo interesting

[Agent Fisher]

If anyone's interested, this fic is complete on fanfiction.net, as well as the sequel posted.

https://m.fanfiction.net/u/4224686/DX1998 sequel is Halo: Ori War

[Skywalker_T-65]

If anyone's interested, this fic is complete on fanfiction.net, as well as the sequel posted.

https://m.fanfiction.net/u/4224686/DX1998 sequel is Halo: Ori War

Yup. I've said it's finished before actually. To be technical, it's my sister's story, not mine. I got her permission to post it here since I figured ideas may come (we collaborate on a lot of our fics). Like the nuke idea. In point of fact, I should probably go back and edit the first post to note that...

Oh, and I'll go ahead and finish Battle of Earth off since we've established the fic is complete

EDIT: And a message from DX

'Thanks for the interest here! Both of us managed to forget to edit the first post to note that it was my fic. My fault there. I assumed people would read the FFN version and realize that...

I hope everyone enjoys the end of the story though. I would like to think it went well, and the sequel is going well too.'

---

1930 Hours, November 30th, 2552 (Military Calendar)/

UNSC Infinity, Deep in the Oort Cloud

---

Even deep inside the Oort Cloud, far at the edge of the Sol System, the battle at Earth was known. The ONI construction site, home of the mighty UNSC Infinity, was receiving the panicked transmissions of the defenders being overrun. Even footage of the monster that was High Charity was being beamed to the area. As a result, the crew of the new warship were, unsurprisingly, rushing to get it ready for battle. The defenses at Earth were being pushed back, and they needed all the help that could be rushed their way.

And that included the Infinity, even if its paint hadn't finished drying yet.

"How are we doing Aine?" Captain Amagi asked, his voice slightly strained as the footage continued to play on the bridge.

"Systems are running at optimal capacity," the AI replied, "I would have liked more time to install the last armor and weaponry, but we're ready as we'll ever be Captain."

Amagi nodded, "I agree that we aren't at full Aine. But we don't have a choice...Earth needs us."

"I don't dispute the point Captain."

Fact was, even if the Infinity wasn't truly ready for combat, it was needed too badly to stay hiding. If Earth fell, then what would be the point of the vessel? Picking up colonists from the suddenly naked colonies and fleeing until it was hunted down? So it really shouldn't come as a surprise that the vessel was being sent into its first battle, incomplete or not.

Of course, while the Infinity was incomplete, that didn't mean she lacked teeth. Even now weapons were being charged, and nuclear weapons beamed aboard from the construction station.

"Hyperdrive is ready!" another female voice called out.

Amagi and Aine turned around, and saw Vala sprinting onto the bridge. The trans-dimensional traveler was harried, her black hair shooting up all over her head. The man following behind her, General Landry, was little better. He didn't look as harried, but anyone who could read body language could tell he was just as worried about the situation as anyone else. The UNSC officials snapped off salutes at the SGC personnel as they entered the bridge, a gesture Landry returned and Vala ignored.

The former Goa'uld host was too busy chattering away about the hyperdrive. Amagi was lost within a few sentences, while Aine soaked in everything. The tiny orange woman nodded occasionally, before turning to the Captain and General. The seriousness of the situation meant that both men had equally serious looks on their faces instead of the amused smirks they may have otherwise worn.

"We are ready to depart on your order Captain."

Amagi nodded once more, before looking out on the bridge of his vessel. It was bare, only the most essential consoles and personnel present. And yet, everyone in the room bore the same grimly determined look on their faces. They all knew that the Infinity wasn't ready. And they all could care less...they would follow their Captain to hell and back if needed.

And, that was what he was about to ask them to do. For 'hell' was the perfect way to describe the killing ground that was Earth orbit.

"I know what I'm asking of you all," the Captain began, "I won't lie. We aren't ready for this, and we very well may die. If any of you have objections, now would be the time to voice them. I won't hold it against you if you chose to stay here."

Silence and determined looks were the only answer he got. That brought a small smile to Amagi's face, as he turned to look at Aine once more.

"Very well then...take us to Earth Aine."

The AI nodded, "Activating Hyperdrive now...sir."

And with those words said, the various comets floating around Infinity vanished as a truly gargantuan portal opened off her bow. The six-kilometer long behemoth entered into the portal, vanishing from the Oort Cloud. As it sat, the blue tunnel of hyperspace that replaced the comets only lasted for a few seconds however. Soon after entering the portal, the Infinity popped back out.

As the massive warship exited hyperspace, its golden shield flared as large amounts of debris collided with the Infinity. Debris wasn't all that collided with the incomplete vessel either, as blue fire began to bombard the shield. The source of which was a vessel even larger than the new UNSC warship. One clearly Forerunner in origin...the Keyship.

And Infinity made a rather large target.

Thankfully, the Odyssey zoomed in and distracted the Keyship, prompting Vala to run over to the communications console.

"Someone call for some help?" she shouted cheerfully, as the Infinity began to bombard the Keyship.

"Vala? I thought the Infinity wasn't ready?" Sam's voice came back, as the Odyssey zoomed past, blue lances of plasma flashing from its bow.

Before the former-host could reply, Amagi cleared his throat, "Miss Mal Doran?"

Vala had the good grace to blush slightly, as she stepped away from the console. Amagi nodded, and moved forward to it himself.

"We're not at one-hundred percent Colonel," the man spoke, "but we're ready enough to help. Is that Keyship damaged?"

As another barrage of fire blossomed on the golden shield, Amagi's question made sense. If the Keyship were at full power, the Infinity would probably be a rapidly expanding cloud of gas at the moment. As it sat, the massive generators gave the Goa'uld shield grid enough juice to absorb the Covenant fire. In its current incomplete state the Infinity couldn't take the same beating as the Odyssey, but it was still doing an admirable job of things.

And as it continued to return fire with everything from Onagers to Ion Cannons, the Keyship began to show some level of strain. Its fire slacked slightly, and the shield flared brighter and brighter with every impact.

Sam's reply confirmed the theory in any case, "As near as we can tell, yes. It's certainly not the Ecumene."

"'cause if it was we'd be dead right about now," Cam's voice added, as the Odyssey spun away, its shield sputtering slightly.

They couldn't deny that point, as an Elite-controlled CCS went up in a fireball after a handful of shots. And even the Infinity and Odyssey working together were hard pressed to do any noticeable damage to the Keyship. Their concentrated fire began to show signs of damaging the vessel, to be fair, but it was very minor. Gouges were being burnt in its hull by the superheated Asgard plasma beams, but these were small and localized.

Even a MAC shell from Infinity did nothing but put a massive dent in a 'leg' of the vessel. And while the Keyship was by far the most dangerous vessel on the battlefield, it wasn't the only Covenant vessel capable of dueling the 304 and Infinity to a standstill.

For a Covenant Supercarrier was approaching. The visibly retrofitted bow made it clear this was the one from Reach...and it was hungry for blood.

"This is my fight,"a harsh voice came over the radios on both Odyssey and Infinity.

A blast of pure white light came flashing through space, carving a chunk out of the massive Supercarrier. The source of this blast was quickly revealed...the Shadow of Intent, by now Thel 'Vadam's flagship. As its energy projector recharged, blue plasma fire began to flare out. Torpedoes flew towards the 28 kilometer monstrosity, as the Supercarrier returned fire.

Between the battling Covenant warships, the Infinity flared its thrusters and moved out of the line of fire. An unlucky Corvette was smashed against the shields of the mighty warship, while more fire went between it and the Keyship.

"Damn it, how much can that thing take?" Vala said, nearly falling to the ground after a particularly savage blow.

"A lot," Aine replied dryly, code rushing over her body at what seemed like lightspeed as she practically fought the ship herself, "Shields are at 75 percent and falling. The Keyship appears to be at 80."

Amagi frowned, "So we aren't going to win a battle of attrition. How is the Odyssey doing?"

"Shields are at 90 percent, according to Kalmiya," Aine replied, communicating with the AI temporarily serving on the 304, "whatever they've got powering her, its impressive."

Considering the Odyssey had been fighting for longer than Infinity, that was saying something. But the fact remained, that even working together the two warships were unable to defeat the Keyship. And unless something changed fast they would eventually lose. And if they fell, so would Earth...nothing but these two warships could hurt the Keyship.

Luckily for the UNSC, Murphy decided to take pity on them.

---

USS Odyssey

---

"What I wouldn't give to have Light here!" Cam complained, as the Odyssey shook heavily.

"Teal'c would be welcome, yes," Daniel added, holding onto a console as he tried to help where he could.

And as if the Jaffa had heard that statement, a new wave of slipspace portals opened. Out of these came ships that looked nothing like any on the battlefield had seen before. Dull grey like UNSC vessels, these ships were sleeker than anything built by human hands. Not on the level of the Covenant...but then, looks didn't really matter. For at the forefront of the hundred or so strange warships, was the Ecumene.

The Keyship went directly for the Dreadnought, the two vessels beginning to duel as green bolts of energy lanced out from the escorting warships. The green bolts were impressive, cutting through Covenant shields almost as well as Tollan weaponry. And with a hundred fresh ships entering the battle, it was the final nail in the Covenant assault's coffin.

Because these new warships dived through their shattered lines, linking the Home Fleet with the reinforcements.

"Do you require assistance Colonel Mitchell?" Teal'c's stoic, and very much welcome, voice came over the radio as the Ecumene poured orange fire into the Dreadnought.

"Boy are we glad to see you!" Cam replied, as the three warships (Odyssey, Infinity and Ecumene) teamed up on the rapidly failing Covenant Keyship.

The Covenant warship continued to fight back hard, but it was quickly becoming apparent that it was outmatched. Even against the Ecumene alone it would have lost...a damaged and ill-maintained Keyship against one that had been lovingly maintained and upgraded. Against three vessels of such power, it was a lost cause from the word 'go'.

And yet, it still refused to give up. While it was increasingly obvious that the Dreadnought was not being flown at its full capacity, it was still fighting harder than it had any right to. The vessel's weapons flared out, even as fire from the Ecumene blew them away. Even as the Infinity blew a 'leg' off with a MAC barrage. Even as the Odyssey burned its engines away.

Despite all the damage adding up, the Dreadnought continued to fight.

---

Dreadnought

---

The simple reason for that was that Truth refused to surrender. Even as his 'holiest of holy places' was shot out from under him, the Prophet refused to even entertain the idea of giving up. In his mind, there was little but anger now. Anger at the fact that the humans had the aid of the Stoics, his kin who had been believed dead.

And, of course, the Forerunner. For where else could they have acquired another Dreadnought, one that was untouched by time? For all of his religious mania, Truth could easily tell that the enemy equivalent to his own vessel was undamaged and fully functioning.

"The gods have betrayed us," he muttered under his breath, as another hit shook the Dreadnought.

Tartarus was in the background, yelling futile commands to continue fighting. The Jiralhanae Chieftain bore a bleeding wound on his forehead where he had been thrown by a particularly violent blow, but it didn't slow him down. Nor did his determination matter much in the grand scheme of things. Nothing mattered any longer, not now that the Dreadnought, mightiest of Covenant warships, was falling apart around them.

The most powerful weapons had gone first, destroyed by the other Dreadnought. Then had gone the engines, destroyed by that thrice-damned human warship. The new vessel had done just as much damage, its weaker weapons making up for it with their sheer numbers. With all this damage adding up, it truly was only a matter of time before the Dreadnought was fully destroyed.

"So this is to be my end," the Oracle said softly.

Truth rounded on the device, his eyes burning, "We shall not lose! The gods may have betrayed us, but we will not lose to the vermin!"

"Even were the Mantle's Protector at full capacity you would lose," the Oracle replied, "and even if I will die before I could do anything to redeem myself, this is how it should be."

"We cannot lose," Truth countered, "the Great Journey must go forward."

If anything, the Oracle somehow managed to convey emotion despite not moving from its spot. Or changing the tone of its 'voice'.

"You would have done nothing but doom the Galaxy. If only for that, I can thank whomever is in command of the Ecumeme for saving the Galaxy."

Truth shook with rage, as he began to rally a counter to what the 'mighty Oracle' had said. He would never get the chance, however, as a shot from the Infinity roared through the control room.

And as that shell did its work, Mendicant Bias felt at peace for the first...and last...time in his life.

---

As the Keyship fell apart, sighs of relief went through the UNSC/Allied fleets. The Arbiter had finished the last Supercarrier, and with the death of their most effective warships, the Covenant forces shattered. The Brute vessels either died or fled the battle, leaving Earth in the control of the UNSC and her new allies. It was far from a glorious victory though.

Earth burned where Covenant vessels had broken the Home Fleet's lines...most of East Africa and part of the North American coast were raging firestorms. And the fleet had taken just as much damage...of the hundreds of vessels that should have made up the Home Fleet, barely sixty remained in good condition. The Reinforcement Fleet fared better, but even they had lost dozens of warships. In fact, between them, the Stoics and Elites outnumbered the UNSC at the moment.

"That...was hell..." Daniel said on the Odyssey, wincing slightly as half a Marathon floated past.

Sam nodded wearily, "Yes, yes it was."

SG-1 had been through many things. But they had never been through a battle like this. The battle of the Supergate had been a dozen or so warships. Even Anubis hadn't used so many warships...and to see the shattered hulks of enough warships to overrun the Goa'uld Empire, was a horrible sight. Even more so with the knowledge that it would take years for the UNSC to recover...years they would have to rely on the Stoics for.

If Teal's routine messages were to be believed at any rate. The Stoics were bitter about the 'favored' status of Humanity, but unlike their Covenant cousins they were determined to help the 'heirs to the Gods' instead of fighting them. And that was definitely a good thing...since the UNSC needed all the help they could get until they were able to fully rebuild their shattered fleets.

The bigger question was going to be the Elites.

"Think we can trust them?" Cam asked aloud.

Daniel nodded, "I think so. They're just as much of victims as anyone else here. Lied to and manipulated for decades into killing someone they probably would have revered otherwise? I would be worried if they suddenly wanted to fight us again."

That was all they could hope for. That, and that they would be able to go home finally...now that the war was over, it was time to focus on a way to get the Odyssey back to their Earth, their Milky Way... their war.

---

I'll probably post the epilogue tomorrow, since there isn't much point not posting it.

[Skywalker_T-65]

Ended up busy. But here's the epilogue now.

---

1200 Hours, December 6th, 2552 (Military Calendar)/

Moscow Station

---

It had been a week since the end of the Battle of Earth, and the beginning of the end for the Human-Covenant War. A long week, as the ruined UNSC Navy attempted to rebuild, while the Stoics and Elites fought their battles for them. It was a monumental task, as the Fleet had been crippled in the assault on Earth. The Home Fleet, reinforced by any ships they could strip from the other Inner Colonies, had been the vast majority of the UNSC Navy. Hundreds of warships, amongst them the newest and most advanced built since the Odyssey had arrived.

Of those ships, barely one hundred remained in workable condition at the end of the battle. The remainder of the Navy, several hundred ships itself, was needed to police against the hit-and-run raids the Brutes and Elite-loyalists made. Hence the reason that the Elites and Stoics were the ones driving the Brutes back, back towards their homeworld. And it was a task they were performing admirably. The Elites had yet to truly shake their loyalty to the Prophets, outside a few like the Arbiter. Transferring that loyalty, at least on a military basis, to the Stoics had proven remarkably easy.

The joint forces of the Elites and Stoics were more than a match for the disorganized Brutes...most of the Covenant Prophets had died with High Charity. This left the Brutes without effective leadership, outside a select few who knew what they were doing. As a result the enemy was hemmed in and losing every battle.

Of course, none of this meant much to SG-1. It should have, but they were just tired. The Battle of Earth had taken more out of them than they would readily admit, and they just wanted to go home now.

"Figure anything out yet Sam?" Cameron Mitchell asked, once more.

"As I've said the last twenty times you asked," Samantha Carter replied, "no. Even with the data of the event that got us here in the first place, I can't replicate it. Unless you want to try getting the Arbiter to shoot us with an Energy Projector."

Cam blanched, "Not particularly, no."

"Then stop asking, I'll tell you when I'm done."

What was left unsaid, was that Sam had no idea when that would be. SG-1 had been aboard Moscow Station, one of the few surviving ODPs, for days now. And they were no closer to getting home, than they had been when they first arrived. It was quite frustrating really.

"I'm sorry for snapping at you," the Colonel spoke up after a few minutes.

"Eh, no biggy," Cam replied, "You're the one doing all the work here. I'm as useless as Vala at a jewelry party."

"I heard that!" the former-host in question shouted from where she was hounding Daniel, "I'll have you know I'm plenty useful when it comes to jewelry!"

"Useful at stealing it maybe."

"Exactly! That's a handy skill to have!"

Shaking his head in amusement, Cam turned back to his fellow soldier, "Seriously though, keep up the good work. If anyone can get us home, you can."

"Everyone always expecting miracles..." Sam muttered under her breath, though it was easy to tell she was thankful for the vote of confidence.

"You're a miracle machine Carter."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence. Now, I really do need to focus on this."

The male Colonel nodded, and left his female counterpart to her work. Turning away from Sam, he walked over to where Vala, Daniel and Teal'c stood. Landry was somewhere else, probably talking with Hood. That left just SG-1 in the room, though that wasn't a bad thing. They hadn't been together like this in months.

"No luck I take it?" Daniel asked, glad for the distraction from Vala.

"Nope," Cam replied, "of course, this is all way over my head so I wouldn't know even if she was having good luck."

"Yeah, Sam's like that," the other man said, a fond smile on his face.

The Colonel turned to Teal'c, "What do you think about this?"

The Jaffa looked thoughtful, "I believe Colonel Carter will uncover a way to return home."

"Hear that Carter!"

"Yes!"

Cam smirked slightly, glad that he had lifted the mood slightly. It had been entirely too dreary lately. Little did he know, that as the door opened behind Teal'c, a way to get home may just have been found. Standing in the open entryway, was Miranda Keyes. Behind her, was a woman who looked remarkably similar to her, sans her scientist outfit. The two women entered the room, and drew the attention of SG-1 quickly enough.

"Colonel Mitchell," Miranda nodded at the commander of the team.

"Commander Keyes," Cam nodded back, "You need something?"

The dark-haired woman shook her head, "I don't, but Kalmiya has something she thought you might find interesting."

The woman behind Keyes stepped forward, her body moving surprisingly fluidly considering it was an android. A Replicator, to be technical...with the stalemating of any ideas to get home, Sam had spent some time on a solution to Smart AI's, 'lifetime' issues. The best one to come up, was constructing Replicator bodies, with Asgard technology for the 'brain'. The combination was effective enough...a typical Smart AI could last decades with a Replicator body, as opposed to just seven years in a crystal.

"Cortana and I believe we have figured out what the artifact is," Kalmiya said.

"The one under Mombassa?" Sam asked, looking away from her lack of progress.

The AI nodded, "Yes. If what we are seeing is correct- and Grieving Light believes it is -it is a slipspace portal."

"To where?" Daniel asked.

"We don't know," Kalmiya replied, a slightly nervous look on her normally impassive face, "according to Grieving Light, the Ecumene can be used to activate it, but we do not know where it will lead."

"You want us to try it, don't you?" Cam asked.

"If you are willing, yes."

Miranda shook her head slightly, "Not just you. Kalmiya will stay with the Odyssey, but Cortana and a detachment of Spartans will be on the In Amber Clad. We'll both go."

SG-1 shared a look, before nodding their heads. This was literally their mission. Not fighting massive wars. It was exploring through portals, finding new worlds and all that stuff. This was a return to form, and who knows...maybe the Forerunner had something on the other side of that portal that could get them home?

"We'll do it," the male Colonel said.

---

1300 Hours, December 6th, 2552 (Military Calendar)/

USS Odyssey

---

"That is..."

"Big?"

"Indeed."

"Kinda reminds me of the supergate. I swear, if I end up in another Galaxy again..."

Sam shook her head in amusement at that statement, "Don't worry Vala, you're aboard a ship this time, not a shuttle."

"Little comfort that is!"

The woman tried not to show it, but her little detour to the Ori Galaxy was something that had left scars. Metaphorically speaking, of course. So looking at the massive portal in Earth's sky that had been created by the Ecumene, didn't exactly do her any favors. Memories of the first Supergate came to mind. And for the rest of SG-1, it brought memories of the Second Supergate. At least this time it was them activating it, so there wasn't any risk of massive toilet-bowls of doom coming out of it.

Still, it felt dangerous going into it. At least they weren't going alone. The Ecumene lifted up from the silvery metal at its 'feet', joining formation with the much smaller Odyssey and In Amber Clad. The three vessels were going through to scout the other side of the portal, nothing more, nothing less. They were expected back quickly, at least to get more support if needed.

If there was something on the other side that could handle the Odyssey and a Keyship though, there wasn't a whole hell of a lot the UNSC could do to stop it, of course.

"Well, let's get going!" Cam ordered, as the UNSC helmsman flared the battlecruiser's engines.

The frigate and Keyship were right beside it, as they entered the portal. Not even a few minutes later, they exited the portal...in orbit of a structure that dwarfed even the Halo Rings. A massive, almost flower shaped, structure. Completely untouched by the flood, it looked like a planet, spread out into arms. Like the Halo's, but on a totally different scale.

"I'm not seeing things am I?" Daniel asked.

"Unless we all are," Cam replied, "Damn, the Forerunner don't do anything small."

"Scanning..." Sam added, "That thing is 127,530 kilometers wide."

"Jesus Christ."

"Indeed," Teal'c added, that one word carrying a lot of weight.

Daniel shook his head in amazement, "Why would they need something so big?"

"Something has to build those Rings?" Vala suggested.

"That's one hell of a factory then."

"Indeed."

The rest of SG-1 gave Teal'c looks. It was rare when he was shocked into just using one word answers. At least, it was rare these days.

"I...never believed I would see this," a transmission came from the Ecumene. Even Grieving Light seemed shocked into a stupor.

"What is this?" Cam asked.

"The Ark. Where the Halo Rings are constructed, and where the last of the Forerunner hid from the firing of the Array. I had thought it was lost."

Evidently the Forerunner lied to their Monitor then. To be fair, if Guilty Spark were more of a 'normal' monitor than Light...it made sense to not tell them everything. But hiding something like this from them, was quite the feat. Actually, scratch that.

Building this thing was quite a feat. Even the Ancients had never done something of this scale. And if the power readings coming off the Ark were any indication, it had more power than Atlantis hundreds of times over. If it built Halos, it had to have that power. Even the Rings had a lot of power, building them probably took even more. Not to mention the fact there seemed to be a planet being strip mined at the center of the Ark.

"Is there anything we can use it for?" Sam asked this time.

"Other than building giant Rings of doom?" Vala suggested.

Light was silent, before answering, "Perhaps. I cannot claim to know of the Ark's capabilities. But it is possible that it can be used to return you home. The Portal that transported us here is likely controlled by the Ark's systems. Slipspace is another dimensional plane entirely. If you can tap into the portal, it might be able to be used like the Quantum Mirror you told me of."

SG-1 shared a look at that. They would like nothing more than to go home. If using that portal could do it...well, they had to at least try didn't they?

"Could that work Sam?" Daniel asked.

The blonde looked curious, "Possibly. A Slipspace portal isn't the same as Hyperspace...it isn't another level of subspace, it literally is a different dimension. Traveling between dimensions like with the Quantum Mirror isn't quite the same thing, but it is possible."

Hope was reignited for getting home. SG-1 may have just stumbled upon a way to do so, and that was important.

"We'll return to Earth and report," Cam relayed to the other two ships, as they started to explore the Ark.

"Return as soon as possible Reclaimer," Light replied, "I want to help you as much as I am able."

---

1600 Hours, December 20th, 2552 (Military Calendar)/

Installation 00 (Ark)

---

It had been a couple weeks since the discovery of the Ark. Weeks spent exploring the massive structure, and attempting to find its controls. Even with Cortana and other Smart AI working on the task though, it was far from a simple thing to do. The Ark redefined big for a physical construct, and the only expert on Forerunner technology they had was every bit as lost as everyone else. If only because the Forerunner had kept a tight lid on the Ark, and made it to where even Grieving Light couldn't access everything.

In point of fact, the largest issue with finding the control room was the fact that the systems of the Ark refused to give full access to the Monitor. No matter what Grieving Light attempted, the same message was given.

Unauthorized Access.

They might have never figured out how to access the stations systems, were it not for Cortana. The AI, most advanced human construct, finally found a curious anomaly in the systems. If a 'Reclaimer' was with Light when she accessed a system, it would allow her to use it. The Forerunner probably did that intentionally...much as they had left the Portal on Earth. Eventually, they had to have known that humans would stumble upon the Ark. Setting it up to where even their Monitors needed human assistance made sense in that regard.

Once they had discovered the secret of using the Ark, it had only been a matter of time until they found the controls for the Portal. It turned out it could connect to several different worlds in the Milky Way, notably not including the homeworlds of the Covenant races. These secondary portals seemed to be used for reseeding the Galaxy after a firing of the Rings, or for depositing the Rings in the first place. Such as the incomplete Installation 04B currently being built.

But the more important discovery, was the fact that the Portal was variable. Given enough tinkering, it could go anywhere. If that included SG-1's home universe...well, that was what Sam was working on at that very moment.

"Do you think this one will work Carter?" Cam asked, on the bridge of the Odyssey.

"It should," Sam replied, "by giving the Portal the quantum signature of our own reality, it gives it something to connect to. Right now, its set to drop us off over Tollana...nice and isolated."

"But are you sure it will work?" Vala asked nervously.

The blonde shrugged, "There's no way to be certain. On the other side, there is no slipspace portal so we can't send a Prowler to scout it...they can't get back."

"Which raises the question," Daniel added, "why are they coming with us?"

'They' meaning the gathering of UNSC and Covenant vessels around the Odyssey.

"Since you asked," Landry spoke up, once again in command of the vessel...

*flashback*

"You want to send ships back with us?" the General asked, "Even though they might never come back?"

Lord Hood nodded, "We pay our debts General. If not for your assistance, we may very well have lost this war. We were losing, until you gave us a boost. We would have lost Reach, and possibly even Earth. You saw yourself that nothing but the Ecumene could handle the Keyship."

"Still, you are sending your people somewhere they may never return from."

"Maybe so, but this isn't entirely altruistic General."

Landry's eyebrow went up, "What do you mean?"

Hood sighed, "There will be several Colony Ships going with you. We lost many worlds in this war, and the refugees are...not exactly trusting of our new allies."

"The Elites."

"Precisely. Many who lost their worlds want to live somewhere where they are never at risk of that happening again. There is nowhere safer than another universe."

Landry nodded. That made sense to him...if his people had gone through the same thing, they wouldn't be so trusting. And going to another universe would leave them far, far away from the Covenant that may attempt to attack again. Doubtful that may be, considering the Elite's newfound freedom and reverence for humanity. The risk was still there, and he could easily understand that those who lost their worlds may want to live in peace.

Problem being, they weren't any safer in Pegasus or the Milky Way of his home, than they were in their own Milky Way. The Wraith and Ori may not have been as bad as the worst of the Covenant, but they weren't exactly sunshine and daises. Especially the Wraith, who would make you wish you were being glassed.

"We did inform you that we have a war of our own to fight, correct?" he asked his UNSC counterpart.

"Indeed you did," Hood replied, "that is why we are sending Battlegroup Keyes with you. Captain and Commander Keyes have worked with your team in the past, and are fully understanding of the risk they are getting into. The Ecumene will go with you too."

"That's the only Keyship left..."

"Not exactly," the old Admiral replied, before a hologram sprang up on the table...showing two Keyships under construction, "Light's main body on Installation 02 has been constructing new vessels, ever since SG-1 made contact with her. The Erde-Tyrene and Didact are about 50% complete."

Landry's brow went back up, "Well, that solves that problem. Everyone knows what they're getting into? The Ori are more powerful than the Covenant...even if not as numerous."

Hood nodded, "Yes, they all know what to expect. In fact, I believe they may not be your only support."

Landry was going to ask what the man meant by that, but his answer came walking into the room. Imposing in their full armor suits, stood two Elites. One in ceremonial armor, the other in red Major armor. The two aliens stood tall, looking every bit the warriors they were. Landry recognized them...the Arbiter, still in his special armor, and his second in command. Why the two were here was fairly obvious.

Their motives, less so.

"Lord Hood speaks the truth," Thel finally said, "My people want to help those who helped us."

"How did we help you?" Landry couldn't help but ask.

"By exposing the lies of the Prophets, and introducing us to the true Prophets," the Arbiter replied, "something for which we will never be able to properly repay you. Nor will we ever properly repay our debt for blinding following Truth's lies for so long."

The red-armored Elite nodded, "This is why we are offering what we can."

The General still frowned, "You have even less reason to go on a journey you may not return from. There aren't any...Sangheili...in our Galaxy. Not that we've seen. You'd be alone."

If the Elite in red could have shrugged, he would have, "This is a risk any true warrior would take. Our honor demands we assist you, regardless of what may happen to us."

"However," Thel added, "I shall not be going. I am needed here, to maintain our Alliance. Nar shall be the one leading our detachment."

The other Elite nodded his head. Landry just shook his own...not quite sure how to feel about this...

*end flashback*

"So...they're guilty?" Cam asked dubiously.

Landry nodded, "Basically. We need all the help we can get against the Ori, so I won't turn them away."

"Wasn't saying I would sir."

They could hardly afford to turn support down. The SGC had, at best, three other 304s they could use. The Daedalus herself, the Apollo, Sun Tzu, and if it were complete, the Phoenix. That was it, and it wasn't enough. Even if all three- or four -of the other ships were still intact when the Odyssey returned, and could be refit with the Asgard upgrades...it still wouldn't be enough. The Ori outnumbered them too heavily, and it was only a matter of time before they made another Supergate to replace the currently locked down one.

That wasn't even counting the ever-looming Wraith, of course.

"Still, isn't this a bit...much?" Daniel asked, looking out at the gathered warships.

"I ain't complaining," Vala replied.

"Indeed."

Floating around the Odyssey, were dozens of UNSC and Covenant warships. Ships of all classes, aside from a Supercarrier, in fact. All of them floating in their own formations...UNSC and Covenant clearly apart from each other, yet clearly in support of each other at the same time.

On the UNSC side there were: The Solemn Penance, a single Valiant-class Super-Heavy Cruiser, three Autumn-class Cruisers, the Pillar of Autumn herself, a dozen destroyers and at least as many frigates. Floating at the center of the formation were six Phoenix-class colony ships...containing the refugees who wanted to start a new life in the other universe.

On the Covenant side, there were fewer...but distinctly larger...ships. The Shadow of Intent floated at the center of their formation, surrounded by a half-a-dozen CCS class cruisers, and a dozen destroyers and frigates. All of these vessels were green, to distinguish them from the old Covenant purple.

All together, there was nearly a hundred united warships going with the Odyssey. And the Ecumene was right next to the ship in question.

"Portal is ready sir," Sam reported.

Landry looked up, at the massive slipspace portal opening in front of the fleet, "Take us in then."

The Odyssey was finally going home...

---

And there we go. The sequel will be up as soon as I can get the chapters from my sister.

On that note, both of us thank everyone who has read the story.

[Eternal_Freedom]

Thank you both, it's been awesome.

I've read the first few chapters of the sequel, it's just as good so far!

[InsaneTD]

Fantastic work and an excellent read, I can't wait to start reading the sequel.

[astrospace2020]

very good story so far , i hope you update soon

[Borgholio]

very good story so far , i hope you update soon

Necros are bad, m'kay?